South Korea's consumer prices grew sharply in February mainly due to soaring food and energy-related product costs, adding to concerns that mounting inflationary pressure could undercut the nation's economic recovery, a government report showed Wednesday.   According to the report by Statistics Korea, the country's consumer price index surged 4.5 percent last month from a year earlier. The figu

Samsung Electronics Co. announced Tuesday that it won 30 prizes, including two top honors, at an international design exhibition.The South Korean electronics giant said it grabbed 30 awards at the 2011 iF Product Design Award. Organized by the International Forum Design in Hanover, Germany, since 1953, the award recognizes products for their overall design, originality and their consideration for

Critics accuse former Prime Minister Chung of ignoring market economics A government-led initiative for profit sharing between large and small firms has sparked fury among conglomerates, politicians and academics who call it a “radical leftist” attempt to encroach on the free market economics.Chung Un-chan, a former prime minister who now heads the semi-official commission for “shared growth,” ann

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