Lawmakers express concerns over growth pace of sovereign debt during parliamentary audit

South Korean stocks fell 0.51 percent on Monday as investors took to the sidelines ahead of a crucial policy meeting by the U.S. Federal Reserve on a rate hike later this week. The local currency gained ground against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 9.91 points to 1,931.46. Trading volume was slim at 359.48 million shares worth 4.09 trillion won ($3.46 billion), with decliners outnumbering gainers at 519 to 297."The market remained bearish as investors kept a

South Korea's top financial regulator on Monday vowed to take stern measures to mitigate any potential impact from China and the United States, dismissing ballooning fears of a financial crisis this month.The South Korean economy has been rattled by speculations that Asia's fourth-largest economy may brace for another financial jolt sometime this month in the aftermath of a much-awaited U.S. interest rate hike and China's stock market rout, which are feared to further worsen the country's alread

Daum Kakao Corp., the operator of South Korea's most-used mobile messenger KakaoTalk, said Monday it has no plans to tap into the mobile casino market, denying earlier rumors surrounding its game business."Daum Kakao is not considering adopting casino content in the gaming platform," the company said. Rumors had it that Daum Kakao may launch gambling-related content on its entertainment platform linked to KakaoTalk, which boasts around 38 million users in the country of 50 million.Daum Kakao cur

South Korea's home rental transactions shrank 4.3 percent on-month in August due mainly to a seasonal decline in demand, the government said Monday.In August, the number of home rental transactions reached 117,280 units, down from 122,552 units in July, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. Compared with the year before, transactions rose 4.4 percent on-year, with the number rising 1.6 percent to 1,011,164 units in the first eight months of the year vis-a-vis the same period i

The government should increase the tax rate for high-income earners in order to help ease the gap between the haves and have-nots, an opposition lawmaker said Monday.Citing data provided by the National Tax Service, Rep. Oh Jae-sae of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy said the top 100,000 income earners in the country took home an average of 470 million won ($398,000) in 2013.In terms of earned income alone, the top 100,000 got paid an average of 274.4 million won in the sa

Loans extended to the self-employed by South Korean lenders this year have surged at the fastest clip ever, central bank data showed Sunday, adding to concerns over the country's bulky and still growing household debt.Local lenders' outstanding loans to the self-employed reached 229.7 trillion won ($193.7 billion) as of the end of August, growing 20.4 trillion won from the end of last year, according to the data compiled by the Bank of Korea.The increase in the eight-month period is bigger than

Following is a translation of the full text of the Bank of Korea's statement on its monetary policy decision for September. The central bank's monetary policy committee voted Friday to freeze the base rate at 1.5 percent.The Monetary Policy Board of the Bank of Korea decided today to leave the Base Rate unchanged at 1.50% for the intermeeting period.Based on currently available information the Board considers that the trend of economic recovery in the US has been sustained, and that the improvem

The amount of overdue wages for foreigners working in South Korea has increased steadily over the last three years, a report showed Friday. Employers paid 9,378 foreign-born workers at total of 24.1 billion won ($20.3 million) late in 2012, with that number going up to 9,625 workers and 28.1 billion won in 2013 and 12,021 workers and 33.9 billion won in 2014, according to the report.Rep. Jasmine B. Lee of the ruling Saneuri Party released the report based on data the Ministry of Labor submitted

As expected, South Korea's central bank on Friday left its benchmark policy rate unchanged at a record low of 1.5 percent for September as it extended its wait-and-see mode amid rising growth uncertainties and heightened volatility in the global financial market.It marks the third straight month in which the Bank of Korea has stood pat on the key interest rate following a surprise rate cut in June that was aimed at curbing the economic fallout from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, which claimed

South Korea's state-run pension fund operator said Friday it will open an office in Singapore next week in line with its move to find more overseas investment opportunities.The National Pension Service's Singapore operation will be tasked with gathering information on investment, and it marks the NPS' third overseas operation. Similar operations in New York and London were opened in 2011 and 2012, respectively.The NPS has been seeking to jack up overseas investment with the aim to raise that por

The government plans to halve the pay hike rate of public corporations and institutions that fail to introduce the wage peak system by the end of this year, officials said Thursday.Under the plan, if the pay increases for both public servants and quasi-public servants is set at 3.4 percent next year, the rate for employees of the agencies delaying or declining to adopt the wage peak system would stay at 1.7 percent. The officials said the Steering Committee on Public Institution will decide the

South Korea's household debt is potentially detrimental to the local bank industry, but the risks are expected to fizzle out in line with policy efforts aimed at improving the quality of such liabilities, a Standard & Poor's official said Thursday."It's a threat, but we also see mitigation. The household debt level increased sharply this year. (But) we saw the government put out measures to slow it down and help banks to change the structure of mortgage loans," said Ryan Tsang, an analytical man