South Korea's economy is showing clear signs of picking up pace helped by surging exports, improved consumer sentiment and a rise in stock prices, although some lingering uncertainties could limit a full-fledged recovery, at least for the time being, observers said Thursday.It will take several months for rising exports to lift domestic consumption, a major obstacle to the full-scale economic recovery of Asia's fourth-largest economy, experts said as they predicted some lag time before results s

The South Korean economy has been seeing a modest recovery in recent months on the back of improvement in investment and exports, a state-run think tank said Thursday."The Korean economy continued to grow at a moderate pace on improving investment and exports," the Korea Development Institute (KDI) said in its monthly evaluation of the country's economic conditions. "Both construction and facilities investment continued to grow fast, while exports trended up on the recovery of the global economy

Limiting tax exemptions on earned income would be effective in increasing the country's revenue, but when it comes to raising tax rates, applying the hike on businesses would have better results than applying it on people's earnings, a report said Thursday.Authored by professors Park Ki-baeg and Jun Byung-wook of the University of Seoul, the report measured the effects of different options in taxation revisions aimed at narrowing income inequality.(Yonhap)The report was requested by the National

The South Korean government spent nearly 90 trillion won ($79.8 billion) of its state budget in the first three months of the year as part of its efforts to frontload spending to prop up the economy, the finance ministry said Thursday.Budget spending by the government and public institutions for the January-March period stood at 89.3 trillion won, up 1.8 trillion won from the earlier target of 87.4 trillion won, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance. (Yonhap)It accounted for 31.7 per

Calls are rising for business and political circles in Korea to forge a new constructive relationship replacing old collusive ties and work together to draw up a blueprint for the future of the national economy that has seen its growth potential continuously weakening.Political parties have competitively put forward measures aimed at tightening restraints on big businesses, many of which have been embroiled in the massive corruption scandal that led to the impeachment and arrest of President Par

South Korea’s central bank chief said sluggish private consumption should be boosted by job growth in the service sector, cautioning against optimism from rebounding exports.“To revive consumption, people’s income should be increased through job creation. And such job creation should be led by the service industry rather than the manufacturing sector,” Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said at a meeting with economists, professors and financial industry executives. Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol sp

South Korea's economic growth for the first quarter of this year is expected to be faster than the fourth quarter of last year, fueled by robust exports, according to estimates by foreign investment banks Wednesday. Although the nation's industrial output fell in February, foreign banks, including Barclays, HSBC and Citibank, expected production to bounce back, helped by strong exports on improved global demand.  (Yonhap)The estimates, compiled by the Korea Center for International Finance, came

South Korea's current account surplus rose in February from a year earlier due to an increased surplus in the goods account, central bank data showed Wednesday.The country's current account surplus reached $8.4 billion in February, compared with a surplus of $7.62 billion a year earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea.(Yonhap)The figure represents a surplus for 60 months in a row. The current account is the biggest measure of cross-border trade.The BOK said the goods ac

South Korea's foreign exchange reserves rose slightly in March from a month earlier due to a hike in the value of non-dollar currencies when converted into the US greenback, central bank data showed Wednesday.As of the end of March, the country's foreign exchange reserves came to $375.3 billion, up 1.39 billion from the previous month, the Bank of Korea said in a statement.(Yonhap)Foreign exchange reserves consist of securities and deposits denominated in overseas currencies, as well as Internat

South Korea’s consumer prices increased 2.2 percent last month, the fastest hike in nearly five years in March on a sharp rise in gas prices, Statistics Korea said Tuesday.Core inflation, which excludes volatile oil and food prices, increased 1.7 percent compared with last year.

South Korea's reliance on trade fell to an all-time low in a decade last year, data showed Tuesday, but there are lingering concerns that Asia's fourth-largest economy remains vulnerable to external factors.The proportion of South Korea's trade to its gross national income (GNI) -- a gauge of a country's trade dependence -- stood at 80.8 percent at the end of last year, down 5.9 percentage points from 2015, according to data compiled by the Bank of Korea. (Yonhap)The ratio jumped to 104.5 percen

South Korea’s national debt in proportion to gross domestic product continued to increase to 38.3 percent in 2016, due to increased fiscal expenditure to prop up the sluggish economy, government data showed Tuesday.According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Korea’s national debt hit a record high of 627.1 trillion won ($560 billion) last year, up by 35.7 trillion won from a year earlier. Most of the annual gain in national debt, or 31.8 trillion won, was from the issuance of Treasury bon

South Korea and Kenya have discussed ways to step up their collaboration on a range of economic issues, including investment and trade, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.In the fourth round of the joint South Korea-Kenya economic committee held in Nairobi on Monday, South Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs Lee Tae-ho and Kenya's Political and Diplomatic Secretary Tom Amolo discussed economic cooperation issues before adopting an "Agreed Minutes," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Women account for only 2.4 percent of executives at South Korea's top 10 conglomerates, with Samsung Group showing the highest number while Hyundai Motor Group has the least, a corporate watcher's analysis showed Tuesday.Chaebul.com, which follows the activities of leading business groups, counted 5,590 executives at the top 10 listed conglomerates based on their financial reports for 2016. Among them, 134 were registered or unregistered women executives.(Yonhap)Hyundai Motor Group fared the wor

The average sales price of apartments in Seoul has surpassed the 600 million won ($537,000) mark for the first time, data showed Tuesday, due to reconstruction projects in the affluent Gangnam Ward in the southern part of the capital city.The average sales price of apartments came to 600.17 million won as of Tuesday, up 1.56 million won from a month earlier, according to data compiled by KB Kookmin Bank, a flagship unit of South Korea's leading banking giant KB Financial Group Inc.(Yonhap)The ba