South Korea's consumer prices shot up at the fastest clip in nearly five years in March on a sharp rise in gas prices, government data showed Tuesday.The country's consumer price index gained 2.2 percent last month from a year earlier, accelerating from the previous month's 1.9 percent rise, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.(Yonhap)The March number marked the highest on-year gain since June 2012.From a month earlier, the index stayed unchanged at 102.79 in March, with it set at

A rapid flow of foreign capital into local stock and bond markets is raising concerns about the possibility of increasing volatility in Korea’s financial markets.So far this year, foreign investors have bought a net of nearly 14 trillion won ($12.6 billion) in Korean financial assets -- 5.9 trillion won in equities and 8 trillion won in bonds, according to data from the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Financial Supervisory Service.(Yonhap)This pace of foreign capital inflow is the faste

South Koreans are spending less as their income and living expenses move in opposite directions, while the country's economy has yet to pick up beyond doubt, but one segment of consumer groups seems unbothered, or uncaring at least. Retail data analyzed on Sunday showed that sales of items that would normally be the first to be dropped from the shopping list when pinched for money are showing growth, often in double digits.(Yonhap)Ahn, a 36-year-old who describes himself as an ordinary salary wo

South Korea‘s food exports to the United States are expected to reach $1 billion for the first time this year, owing to their brisk advances into ethnic markets, the Korea Agro-fisheries and Food Trade Corp.’s branch said. Most notable among the top 30 export items are ramen, ginseng, mixed seasonings and gochujang, or red pepper paste. Ramen posted $6.84 million during the first two months this year, up 14.3 percent on-year; ginseng $3.3 million, up 67 percent; gochujang $1.8 million, up 33.8 p

South Korea's commerce ministry said Sunday that it has raised trade concerns at a WTO committee over China's apparent retaliatory steps against Seoul's decision to deploy a US missile defense system within the year.The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said it has raised "specific trade concerns" in the WTO's Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) committee meeting held in Geneva from April 28-30, over three cases of what it claims are Chinese trade barriers. (Yonhap)In October last year, China

South Koreans spent a record high overseas last year as more people opted to go on overseas trips, data from the central bank showed Sunday.According to the data compiled by the Bank of Korea, South Koreans spent 28.93 trillion won ($25.9 billion) overseas last year, up 8.3 percent, or 2.23 trillion won, from the previous year. (Yonhap)The 2016 tally marks the highest since the central bank began to compile related data in 1970.South Koreans' overseas spending has been on a sharp rise, reaching

With a recent upturn in exports and production and a slight rebound in private consumption, hopes for an economic recovery are rising in South Korea despite lingering uncertainties at home and abroad, local experts said Sunday.Improved economic data show Asia's fourth-largest economy may be entering into a recovery cycle amid eased political risks following the arrest of former president Park Geun-hye and the fixed schedule for the presidential election next month. (Yonhap)South Korea's producti

South Korea's top 30 business groups cut nearly 20,000 jobs in 2016 amid the country's prolonged economic slowdown, a corporate tracker said Sunday.According to CEO Score, 253 affiliates of the leading conglomerates, known here as chaebol, had a combined workforce of 930,124 as of the end of last year, down 19,903, or 2.1 percent, from a year earlier. (Yonhap)The figure covers only the groups' units that have published business reports for fiscal 2016.Samsung Group, South Korea's top family-cont

South Korea's central bank said Friday it will offer English and two other language service for visitors to its money museum.The Bank of Korea Money Museum said the service, set to begin on Saturday, will be available at 2 p.m. on Tuesday through Saturday.(Yonhap)English service will be available on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays while Chinese and Japanese service will be provided on Wednesday and Friday, respectively.The BOK said about 230,000 South Koreans and foreigners visited the museum

South Korea's finance ministry said Friday that it held a meeting with its Indian counterpart and discussed ways to bolster bilateral economic and financial cooperation.At the working-level talks in New Delhi on Thursday, South Korea and India agreed to work launching the $10 billion Seoul-New Delhi financial program in the near future, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.(123RF)In a summit in 2015, heads of the two countries reached an agreement on the program, aimed at helping de

Oaxaca, a state in Mexico, hopes to learn from South Korea‘s economic miracle and is eager to boost economic ties with the country, its economic secretary told The Korea Herald Thursday. Mario Jesus Rodriguez, the secretary of economy of Oaxaca, and his team, are on a four-day visit to Korea where they hope to learn from the country’s economic development model, he said. “South Korea is important because we know the success of South Korea,” Rodriguez said. “The

The number of unfair trade practices in South Korea plunged in 2016 from the previous year due largely to a drop in newspaper companies' violations of the nation's fair trade, officials said Thursday.The Fair Trade Commission, the country's antitrust watchdog, imposed sanctions on 60 unfair business practices last year, down 43 cases from the previous year.  (Yonhap)The number covered violations for which the FTC issued administrative warnings or stricter penalties. It marked the first time in 2

Korea needs to move faster to prevent a possible economic disruption stemming from a rising number of marginal households and businesses, economists here say.The predicament of the country’s households and enterprises struggling to service their growing debt is set to be exacerbated down the road as interest rates will likely climb.(123RF)Since June, the Bank of Korea has held its key rate at a record low of 1.25 percent to help bolster the sluggish economy, which is forecast to grow below 3 per

Households paid more in interest than gaining interest from their deposits, posting the first such deficit in 2016, Bank of Korea said Wednesday.The so-called interest balance came to a minus as the households’ interest payments grew at a faster pace than interest income, and as financial institutions charged more interest on loans to boost their earnings. The income from interest on deposits at banks and financial institutions reached an estimated 36.1 trillion won, up 5.4 percent from 2015. In