A majority of companies in South Korea are pessimistic about business conditions for next month as fears of China's weakening growth and its stock market rout cloud the outlook for the global economy, a survey showed Sunday.    According to the poll conducted on the country's top 600 companies by the Federation of Korean Industries, the business survey index for September stood at 95.1.   A reading below 100 means pessimists outnumber optimists about business conditions down the road.   The figu

Foreigners have continued their sell-off of Korean stocks this month in the wake of growing uncertainties in the Chinese economy and the timing of the U.S. interest rate hike weighing down on the local equity market, the bourse operator said Sunday.  Foreigners offloaded shares traded on the main KOSPI market for 17 consecutive trading days from Aug. 5 to Friday, with the net amount worth 4.13 trillion won ($3.5 billion), the Korea Exchange said.  The losing streak, the sixth-longest period, was

More than 50 state-run companies and organizations introduced the so-called wage peak system in August amid the government's push for the system in an effort to create more jobs for young people, the finance ministry said Sunday.  As of Friday, 65 out of all public-sector firms and institutions adopted the novel wage system, up 54 from a month earlier and at a much faster clip than expected by the government.  The government had earlier expected some 43 public-sector companies to introduce the w

South Korean stocks are expected to move higher next week as jitters over China's growth abate and anticipation for a delay in the U.S. Federal Reserve's rate hike builds up, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) advanced 3.3 percent this week to close at 1,937.67 on Friday, snapping a five-week losing streak.The main index got off on a weak note earlier this week, dropping 2.47 percent on Monday on persistent concerns over the world's second-largest econ

President Park Geun-hye said Thursday that a delegation of South Korean business leaders will visit China next week to explore business opportunities in the world's second-largest economy.The delegation will "have various cooperative opportunities" in Shanghai, China's commercial capital, during her three-day trip to China, said Park.Park made the comment in a video message to the opening ceremony of a South Korean fair in Shanghai.Park is set to leave for China on Wednesday for summit talks wit

The South Korean economy seems to be gradually recovering from the fallout of MERS that dealt a huge blow to domestic demand over the past months, a central bank report showed Thursday.The MERS outbreak, the second-largest infection outside Saudi Arabia, claimed 36 lives here. South Korea declared a de facto end to the MERS outbreak on July 28, about two months after it reported its first case on May 20.The fatal respiratory illness sapped private spending by making locals refrain from outside a

Bank lending rates for new loans in South Korea continued to fall in July as market rates remained low amid a record-low policy rate, central bank data showed Thursday.The average rate for new loans to households, companies and other organizations came in at 3.43 percent last month, down 0.06 percentage point from June, according to the data compiled by the Bank of Korea.By category, the average lending rate for household loans dipped 0.05 percentage point on-month to 3.17 percent, while that fo

The value of foreign securities held by South Korean institutions climbed to a near record high in the second quarter as local asset managers and insurers beefed up their buying of foreign assets and equities, data showed Thursday.The outstanding amount of foreign securities held by institutional investors reached US$115.3 billion as of the end of June, the highest level since the second quarter of 2007,   when it was $116.5 billion, according to the preliminary data by the Bank of Korea.The amo

A member of the Bank of Korea's rate-setting board on Wednesday stressed that the country's policymakers should give more weight to job creation, departing from their long-cherished mantra of bolstering growth in Asia's fourth-largest economy.The Korean economy has been grappling with a low growth trend in the face of a slowdown in the global economy and structural reforms being pushed at a snail's pace."I assume it will be very difficult to recover the high growth rates that were seen in the pa

South Korea's state-run pension fund has suffered heavy valuation losses from its investment in two Samsung Group units over the past two months as the stocks have plunged after their merger plan was approved by shareholders last month, data showed Wednesday. The National Pension Service -- which holds an 11.6 percent stake in Samsung C&T Corp. and a 5 percent stake in Cheil Industries Inc. -- received keen attention as it held a swing vote for the proposed merger plan.Samsung had faced a strong

South Korea plans to cut consumption taxes on cars and large electronics goods temporarily as part of efforts to stimulate anemic consumer spending that is weighing down economic growth, the government said Wednesday.Private consumption has remained in the doldrums since the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak in late May. In June, retails sales and the service sector contracted at the sharpest pace since February 2011, with consumption backtracking 0.3 percent from three months earlier."P

The South Korean won gained ground against the U.S. dollar for a second straight session on Wednesday after China's rate cut helped lift appetites for risky assets.The local currency was quoted at 1,186.85 to the greenback as of 1:30 p.m., up 8.45 won from the previous session's close. On Tuesday, China slashed its key interest rate for the fifth time since November to buttress up the world's No. 2 economy, whose slowdown fear has triggered turbulence in the global financial market."The local cu

Consumer sentiment in South Korea inched up in August, improving for a second straight month, as fears over the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak ebbed, data showed Wednesday.The overall consumer sentiment index reached 102 in August, gaining from 100 in the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea. A reading below 100 indicates that pessimists outnumber optimists.The index had tumbled below the benchmark 100 in May as the fatal respiratory illness sapped domestic demand by making