South Korea’s current account surplus widened from a year earlier in February on narrowing service account deficits and imports slipping faster than exports, central bank data showed Friday.Cars are lined up at South Korea‘s Ulsan Port to be shipped overseas. (Yonhap)The current account surplus came to $7.51 billion in February, compared to a revised $6.82 billion surplus in the previous month, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea.From a year earlier, the February reading marks a

South Korean consumer prices grew more than 1 percent for the second month in a row in March, government data showed Friday.The country’s consumer price index rose 1.0 percent last month from a year earlier, slowing slightly from the 1.3 percent on-year gain in February, according to a report by Statistics Korea.Customers shop at a local supermarket. (Yonhap)Previously, the price increase rate had remained below 1 percent for 11 straight months until November last year, before rising to above 1

A total of 748 corporate executives in South Korea earned more than 500 million won ($437,000) in annual salary and other incomes in 2015, marking a rise of 3.9 percent from 720 executives in the previous year, a stock-evaluating website said Friday.Market research company Chaebul.com said it surveyed the paychecks of the standing board members at 2,643 companies nationwide with their incomes, cited in the data, including severance pay and stock options.The nation's 10 largest conglomerates acco

The average annual paycheck of workers at the country's top three shipbuilders hovered above 70 million won ($61,200) last year, although local shipyards suffered record losses, industry data showed Friday.Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. paid 78.2 million won on average to its 25,236 workers last year, with the comparable figures for Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. and Samsung Heavy Industries Co. being 75 million won and 71 million won, respectively, the data showed.But this year thei

The average annual paycheck of Samsung Electronics Co.'s employees and executives hovered above 100 million won ($87,489) in 2015 for the third consecutive year, data showed Thursday.According to the latest data compiled by the South Korean tech giant, its 95,652 employees and executives raked in 101 million won on average last year, slightly lower than the 102 million won posted in 2014.Male employees, which make up 68 percent of the entire workforce, made 110 million won on average, while thei

Foreign patients who undergo plastic surgery in Korea will receive VAT refunds starting April 1, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Thursday.The measure is being implemented for one year.  (123RF)The procedures applicable for tax reimbursements include double eye-lid surgery, rhinoplasty, breasts augmentation or reduction surgery excluding reconstruction after mastectomy, liposuction, face lift, facial bone contouring, teeth bleaching, laminating and gingivoplasty and orthognathic surgery.

South Korea’s online sales to foreign customers nearly tripled last year from a year earlier on the back of rising demand from Chinese consumers, a report showed Thursday.South Korean retailers sold an estimated $130 million worth of goods to overseas customers through their websites, up from $44.6 million the previous year, according to the report by the state-run Korea Development Institute.  A customer browses through an online shopping mall. (Yonhap)E-commerce exports have been on a sharp ri

Factory output and business sentiment improve amid still-weak consumption and investment

Korea’s industrial output swung back to growth in February on a strong rise in chips and mobile gadgets, data shows. According to Statistic Korea, production increased 0.8 percent from a month earlier, compared to a 1.5 percent contraction in January. From a year ago, the output grew 2.4 percent.  Samsung flash memory chips (Yonhap)The mining and manufacturing sector led the increase, logging an output growth of 3.3 percent, the highest on-month gain since September 2009. Compared to the corresp

Korea maintains its lead as the world's largest investor in research and development (R&D) for its economic size but still has a long way to go to compete with the U.S. and Japan, the government said Wednesday.Korea spent 4.29 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) in R&D in 2014, ranking first in the world, according to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning. Research facility (Yonhap)By amount, Korea came in sixth with $60.5 billion. Driven by rising industrial investment, Asia'

Korea has seen its exports declining for 14 months in a row since January last year. The record streak of on-year monthly decrease -- with double-digit figures for the December-February period -- has amplified concerns over the slowing growth of Asia’s fourth-largest economy heavily reliant on exports.What is being closely watched for is official trade data for March, which is set to be released by the government Friday. Trade Minister Joo Hyung-hwan (Yonhap)With the country’s outbound shipments

Korea's trade minister requested the country's major distribution chains Tuesday to support the government's desperate efforts to boost exports."Local distribution firms doing business abroad can play a role as the spearhead of exporting our consumer goods," Joo Hyung-hwan, minister of trade, industry and energy, said in a roundtable meeting with representatives from the industry. Trade minister Joo Hyung-hwan (Yonhap)A dozen CEOs of online and offline retail giants operating both here and in fo

Korean consumers’ sentiment improved in March, ending a three-month spell of deterioration, central bank data showed Tuesday. The Bank of Korea’s composite consumer sentiment index ticked up to 100 for March, from February’s 98, which was the lowest level in eight months. The index had moved from 105 in November to 102 in December and 100 in January.  Bank of Korea (Yonhap)A reading above 100 means optimists outnumber pessimists, while a reading below the benchmark means the opposite.“The stabil

South Korea has decided to cut the discretionary spending of government agencies by 10 percent next year in a bid to focus its fiscal policy on job creation, the finance ministry said Tuesday.The 2017 budget guidelines, which passed the Cabinet on Tuesday, call for a thorough examination of spending earmarked for public works projects and welfare outlays.Out of the nearly 380 trillion won ($326.2 billion) of the state budget last year, some 53 percent, or 200 trillion won, is discretionary spend