Korean people’s spending on communications services grew at the fastest pace on record last year as a growing number of people used smartphones, which usually rack up a higher monthly bill than ordinary cell phones, government data showed Tuesday.Monthly household spending on communications services including the use of Internet and mobile phones averaged 136,682 won ($121) last year, up 4.8 perce

Securities companies in Korea saw their earnings inch up in the first three quarters of fiscal 2010 from a year earlier, the financial regulator said Tuesday.A total of 62 local and foreign brokerage houses operating in the country posted 2.09 trillion won ($1.8 billion) in net income for the April-December period, just 2.2 billion won more than a year earlier, the Financial Supervisory Service sa

Saudi Arabia’s Polysilicon Technology Co. said it has awarded a $380 million contract to two South Korean companies for construction of the first stage of a plant to make polysilicon for use in solar-energy panels.KCC Corp. and Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. were selected to build the facility, which will have a capacity to produce 3,350 metric tons a year of solar-grade polysilicon, the S

Surplus down from January but country posts record daily exports of $2.05b despite Mideast turmoilKorea posted a $2.85 billion trade surplus in February, the 13th straight month that it has recorded a favorable balance, official figures showed Tuesday.The preliminary figures marked a slight decline from the revised $2.92 billion surplus for January, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said.Exports i

Korea’s major think tanks are expected to revise up their 2011 inflation outlooks for the country as oil and commodity prices are rising at a faster-than-expected pace.Industry sources said Tuesday that the nation’s leading private-sector think tank Samsung Economic Research Institute will likely raise its inflation outlook to mid-3 percent from its previous forecast of about 3 percent.LG Economic

The Reserve Bank of Australia left its benchmark interest rate at the highest level in the developed world as consumer restraint and a strengthening currency tempered gains in inflation. Governor Glenn Stevens held the overnight cash rate target at 4.75 percent Tuesday, as forecast by all 25 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Stevens told lawmakers in testimony less than three weeks ago the ce

Ford Motor Co. improved the most since last year in Consumer Reports’ annual automaker rankings, bolstered by reliability for resale value, the magazine said. Ford received 67 points out of 100, according to results released Monday at the National Press Club in Washington. It didn’t provide a year-earlier comparison. Consumer Reports commended the manufacturer for the amount of room inside its veh

About one in five South Korean firms doing business in the Middle East expressed their intention to reduce operations in the region mired in an intensifying anti-government protest, a survey here showed Tuesday.According to the survey of 300 companies by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 18.7 percent said that they consider reducing their business with the Middle East countries as part o

South Korea's trade surplus reached $2.84 billion in February mainly due to solid export gains in the face of unfavorable global developments, a government report showed Tuesday.   The February trade surplus marked a slight dip from the $2.92 billion tallied for January, although on a daily basis exports reached a record 2.05 billion, the report by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said, This mark