Despite a prolonged decline in exports, South Korea's terms of trade continued to improve in September as import prices shrank at a faster rate than export prices, central bank data showed Thursday.The country's terms-of-trade index for products soared to 101.63 in September, up 12.5 percent from the same month last year, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).The index gauges the amount of imports a country can purchase for each unit of its exports, which shows how the c

South Korean legislators and policymakers are trying to devise the best possible way to impose taxes on the clergy, which has been a sensitive issue for years, official sources said Thursday.The government has reaffirmed on numerous occasions that there should be no exceptions when it comes to paying dues and the matter should be viewed as establishing fair taxation. Despite this stance, it has also backed down under pressure or opted to delay making a decision that could cause a backlash.In its

Jim Newton, the founder of membership-based startup supporter TechShop Inc., said Wednesday that South Korea stays ahead of the United States in its acknowledgement of innovations, expecting the country's creative economy policy to serve as a new growth engine."We do not have anything like that in the U.S. They do not have the vision," Newton said during an interview, referring to the country's state-led start-up incubator center.U.S.-based TechShop provides startups and individuals with high-en

Stagnant growth of South Korea's service sector is contributing to the country's high jobless rate among young people, a state think tank said Wednesday, calling for measures to galvanize the industry.To help solve the problem, there is a pressing need to build up the country's service sector in such areas as logistics, finance and insurance, education, health care, tourism, contents creation and software development, the Korea Development Institute said in a related forum."The service sector is

The reform of South Korea's labor market is critical for long-term economic growth and can expand employment opportunities that benefit all sectors of society, the top economic policymaker said Wednesday.Speaking at a job fair in Gwangju, 330 kilometers south of Seoul, Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan expressed concern that despite an agreement reached at the tripartite talks in September, conflicts of interest and divergent political agendas have prevented follow-up legislation from gaining spe

The number of "zombie companies" in South Korea has risen sharply over the past five years, data showed Wednesday, with the financial authorities set to take preemptive action to tackle any impact from their sudden collapse.The number of zombie companies, which do not generate enough operating profit to pay tax and interest payments or require constant bailouts, stood at 3,295 as of end-2014, up from 2,698 in 2009, according to the data compiled by the Bank of Korea.The percentage of such troubl

The government plans to strictly adhere to its expansionary fiscal spending plan to help prop up the growth of its economy struggling with sagging exports and weak consumption, the finance ministry said Tuesday.In a meeting to review fiscal spending progress, government officials said every effort will be made to follow through on expenditure programs in the fourth quarter and to minimize the amount of unused taxpayers' money.The ministry predicted Asia's fourth-largest economy will grow just 3.

Slightly over 60 percent of public corporations and organizations have adopted the wage peak system as the government pushes for broad social and labor reforms, the finance ministry said Tuesday.Out of the 316 public sector corporations, 191, or 60.4 percent, had reached an understanding with workers to introduce the novel wage system as of Monday, according to the ministry.Thirty-four other public organizations plan to hold board of directors meetings within the month to approve the wage peak s

About half of South Korean major conglomerates have decided to adopt a wage peak system from next year as the Seoul government pushes to reform the country's rigid labor market, a survey showed Tuesday.Eleven conglomerates including Samsung Group, LG Group, Lotte Group and POSCO Group will embrace the new type of remuneration at all affiliated companies starting from the beginning of 2016, according to the poll of 21 large businesses conducted by the Korean Federation of Korean Industries.Anothe

South Korea has continued to intervene in foreign exchange markets this year, but the pattern of intervention with respect to depreciation and appreciation "appears roughly balanced," the U.S. Treasury Department said Monday.The department made the assessment in its Report to Congress on International Economic and Exchange Rate Policies, saying the won depreciated by 7.7 percent against the dollar, and 2.0 percent on a real trade-weighted basis, in the year through September."Treasury estimates

South Korean retailers witnessed a whopping sales increase for the first two weeks of October as they joined the nationwide consumption-promoting campaign, data showed Sunday.The 22 retailers that joined the Black Friday Korea campaign saw their sales increase by a total 719.4 billion won ($634.9 million), or 20.7 percent, on-year over the cited period, data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy showed.The government and large retailers joined forces to organize the Korean vers

South Korea's tourism industry posted net losses through August this year, data showed Sunday, due mainly to the decline of visitors after the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.According to the data compiled by the Korea Culture & Tourism Institute, South Korea raked in $10 billion through the tourism industry over the January-August period, down 11.2 percent from a year earlier.The figure compares to the country's expenditure in the segment which came to $14 billion, up 6.6 percent o

South Korean stocks started nearly flat as losses in automakers were offset by gains in cosmetics and oil refiners.  The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index edged down 1.65 points, or 0.08 percent, to 2,031.62 in the first 15 minutes of trading.  Top carmaker Hyundai Motor sank 2.46 percent, and its sister Kia Motors tumbled 3.32 percent.   AmorePacific, the largest cosmetics maker, gained 0.14 percent and runner-up LG Household & Health Care climbed 0.58 percent.  Leading oil refiner SK

South Korea's central bank marginally cut its 2015 and 2016 growth outlooks for the local economy Thursday, citing still weak domestic demand and unfavorable external factors.  In its latest outlook, the Bank of Korea predicted Asia's fourth-largest economy to grow 2.7 percent in 2015, down from a 2.8 percent growth forecast three months earlier.  The central bank also revised down its growth outlook for next year to 3.2 percent from 3.3 percent.  The latest revision marks the third consecutive