South Korean stocks are projected to trend lower in the first week of the new year, weighed down by nagging concerns over the eurozone debt crisis, analysts said Saturday.   The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 2.2 percent this week to close at 1,825.74

South Korea’s central bank plans to make maintaining price stability its top priority next year as Asia’s fourth-largest economy remains dogged by persistent inflation risks, its chief said Friday.“Price stability has emerged more than ever before as an important matter of national concern,” Bank of Korea Gov. Kim Choong-soo said in his New Year’s message. “The task before us is to pay even closer attention to achieving our inflation target in 2012.”Kim’s stress on price stability comes as the c

IT products, automobiles expected to see moderate growth despite continued global economic slumpKorea’s major industries have a bleak outlook for next year, with the exception of semiconductors, general machinery and display panels, thanks to a delayed recovery of the global economy.A slump in demand from advanced economies, Korean manufacturers’ key markets, will slacken export growth of IT products such as mobile phones and television sets, and pull down prices, market watchers said.Automakers

Eurozone woes, concerns on slower export growth, stronger Korean won likely to affect financial marketsEvery year has a theme, in retrospect, that helps explain what dominated the country’s economy. In 2011, the eurozone debt crisis was the undisputed prime culprit in putting a dampener on the Korean economy. As the country rings in the new year, hopes are ripe that things will be different; unfortunately, the theme of 2012 might be dishearteningly familiar as the eurozone’s problems are expecte

Damages from social commerce rose sharply from three cases in 2010 to 633 cases in 2011, the Korea Consumer Agency said Friday, as visitors to the online discount shopping sites more than doubled over the past year.Ninety-five cases were reported against Eoulim Communications which runs a social commerce site named Best Place. Eighty-eight cases were filed against Groupon, followed by 66 against Ticket Monster, 60 against Namu Internet’s We Make Price, 57 against Moongssa.com, 53 against Forward

Korea’s financial watchdog unveiled on Friday a set of new initiatives that include the establishment of a third stock market for small companies in 2012, heralding a new phase for the country’s direct funding mechanism.In its 2012 policy report, the Financial Services Commission said the envisioned stock market will be dedicated to small and medium enterprises so that they can secure fresh funds for new investments. Korea runs two stock markets. The main bourse, KOSPI, is made up of blue-chip c

The government logged a cumulative fiscal surplus of 3 trillion won ($2.6 billion) in the January-October period in 2011, but predicted the account will post a deficit in the year-end fiscal settlement, the Finance Ministry said Friday.The cumulative surplus for the first 10 months in 2011 is up 12 trillion won from same time last year. The government logged a 9.9 trillion won deficit during the same time in 2010. “The surplus increase in October was largely because of the temporary increase in

Google was the most-visited Web destination in the United States in 2011, followed by Facebook and Yahoo!, industry tracker Nielsen said Thursday.Google received an average of 153.4 million unique US visitors a month from home and work computers, according to Nielsen.Facebook notched up 137.6 millio

The Korea Communications Commission said Thursday that it will consider putting a stop to the system that checks Internet users’ private information and also prohibit the collection of resident registration numbers online. In a briefing on next year’s policies to President Lee Myung-bak, the state media and telecom regulator said it will revise the information and communications network law step-by-step until 2014 to prevent the collection and use of resident registration numbers online.Beginnin