South Korea's financial watchdog said Wednesday it has picked 19 large companies to be placed under debt restructuring this year as part of efforts to prevent a sudden default in major industries.It is the result of the second inspection the Financial Supervisory Service carried out this year into 368 firms whose credit expansion surpassed 50 billion won ($42.59 million) and which show signs of going bust. Wednesday's decision brought the total number of companies subject to the forced restructu

South Korea is seeking a balance between the supply and demand of rice by 2018 through a gradual reduction in the size of paddies and expanding consumption, the government said Wednesday.The Ministry of Agriculture said it wants to reduce the amount of arable land set aside to grow rice from 799,000 hectares this year to 711,000 hectares in 2018. This is significantly smaller than the expected 749,000 hectares of paddies that would be in service even if no action is taken.It said that in the nex

Bank lending rates on new household loans gained in November for the first time in six months ahead of the widely-expected rate hike in the United States, data showed Wednesday. The average rate for new loans to households gained 0.1 percentage points from the previous month to 3.16 percent in November, according to the Bank of Korea.It marked a turnaround from a five-month decline since June when the central bank announced a surprising rate cut, sending its policy rate to a record low of 1.5 pe

South Korean stocks opened higher on Wednesday, taking a cue from overnight Wall Street gains.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 4.8 points, or 0.24 percent, to 1,971.11 in the first 15 minutes of trading.On Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.1 percent, buoyed by tech rallies and a rebound in crude oil prices. The local currency was trading at 1,168.75 won against the U.S. dollar as of 9:15 a.m., up 0.85 won from Tuesday's close. (Yonhap)

South Korean manufacturers' business confidence continued to weaken with a majority of non-manufacturing firms also expecting worse conditions in the upcoming month, a poll showed Wednesday.The business survey index for manufacturing companies here came to 68 for January, down 1 point from the previous month, according to the survey by the Bank of Korea.A reading below the benchmark 100 means pessimists outnumber optimists. The monthly survey covers about 2,800 firms, including some 1,700 manufa

South Korea's industrial production fell at a faster clip in November on sagging exports and sluggish activity in the chip industry, a government report showed Wednesday, deepening concerns over the country's economic growth.According to the report by Statistics Korea, production in the mining, manufacturing, gas and electricity industries slipped 2.1 percent last month from a month earlier, further declining from a 1.3 percent on-month drop in October.Compared with a year earlier, industrial pr

A majority of companies in South Korea are pessimistic about their business outlooks for next month, citing the impact from the recent rate hike by the U.S. and other downside factors such as falling commodity prices, a poll showed Tuesday.According to the survey of 600 South Korean companies conducted by the Federation of Korean Industries, the business survey index for January stood at 93.2.A reading below 100 means that companies that are pessimistic about business conditions down the road ou

The price of liquefied natural gas used by South Korean households and private firms will be reduced by an average 9 percent from the start of next month, the government said Tuesday.The rate reduction reflects recent cuts in global oil prices, while the exact rate of the cut was decided at a policy coordination meeting with the ruling Saenuri Party, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy."The price of LNG supplied by the Korea Gas Corp. has been cut by 20.7 percent this year, a

South Korea will increase the number of products on its flexible tariff list next year to boost exports and spur growth in Asia's fourth-largest economy, the government said Tuesday.The number of products eligible for preferential tariff rates will rise to 51 in 2016, up from 41 this year, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.Flexible tariffs, which cover both tariff quotas and adjustment duties, are used by the government to temporarily raise or lower basic tariff rates on particul

The government has injected 1.5 trillion won (US$1.29 billion) into a state housing financing firm to help improve its financial soundness hurt by snowballing mortgage loans, the financial regulator said Monday.   The liquidity injection into the state-run Korea Housing Finance Corp. (KHFC) was made through the government's transfer of its 15 million shares in the Korea Expressway Corp., according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).     It marks the third time this year that the governme

Loans extended to South Korean households and private firms reached a new high in the third quarter, accounting for over 180 percent of the country's overall gross domestic product, central bank data showed Monday.According to data by the Bank of Korea, loans extended to households and private companies came to 182.6 percent of its total GDP at the end of September.The reading marked a gain of 2.3 percentage points from three months earlier when the debt-to-GDP ratio, a barometer of fiscal sound

Foreign investors have remained net sellers of South Korean stocks for 17 sessions in a row in December, weighing heavily on the local market alongside falling oil prices and a U.S. rate hike, data showed Sunday.  Offshore investors extended their selling streak to 17 sessions from Dec. 2 to Dec. 24, marking the seventh-longest foreign sell-off in history, according to the Korea Exchange, the bourse operator.  They sold a net 3.2 trillion won ($2.7 billion) worth of local stocks over the cited p