Household loans extended by banks surged last year on the back of low borrowing costs and eased mortgage lending regulations, spurring concerns that such snowballing debt could hold back Asia's fourth-largest economy, the central bank said on Monday.  Household loans by banks increased 37.3 trillion won ($33.6 billion) last year with home-backed loans spiking 35.4 trillion won last year, according to the report by the Bank of Korea submitted to the National Assembly.  Household debt has been gro

Consumption of petroleum products in South Korea hit a three-year low in 2014 despite a sharp fall in oil prices as the domestic economy remained tepid, the state oil firm said Monday.   A total of 823 million barrels of refined petroleum products were sold domestically last year, down 0.38 percent from 2013, according to data by the Korea National Oil Corporation.  Domestic consumption had been on a steady rise from 2009-2012 after a steep slide in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, but it

South Korea's trade minister vowed full support Monday for foreign investors that will include efforts to remove unnecessary regulations.  In a Seoul meeting with top officials from some 20 foreign firms here, Yoon Sang-jick said the government will push for law revisions aimed at providing additional incentives to foreign investors who meet certain conditions, such as hiring a set number of local workers, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.  Foreign direct investment freshl

South Korea's job market is likely to remain gloomy this year, with the number of firms who say they already have enough employees at its highest in five years, a poll showed Sunday. According to the Bank of Korea survey of some 2,800 local companies, the employment business survey index at the beginning of the year stood at 94, the highest since late 2009. The employment BSI gauges whether or not the companies feel they need new recruits. A higher figure indicates that more firms view their cur

South Korea and China would be able to initial their free trade agreement his week, officials in Seoul said Sunday, raising chances of the deal, hailed as the biggest and the most promising for South Korea, being enacted within this year.The two countries announced on Nov. 10 that they have concluded their negotiations for the FTA that began in May 2012. Most of what they agreed to, especially the scale of items excluded from tariff removal, have yet to be disclosed. Details are expected to be m

South Korean convenience stores continued their modest growth last year on the back of a demographic change in the country -- a growing number of single households -- and the variety of items sold, industry data showed on Sunday.Industry leader CU and its smaller rivals such as GS25 have emerged as a key retail outlet in the country by dwarfing their bigger and traditional retail channels in expansion.CU, run by BGF Retail Co., posted 3.37 trillion won ($3.05 billion) in sales last year, up 7.6

South Korea's top air carrier Korean Air Line Co. has signed a memorandum of understanding with Europe's Airbus to jointly bid for Seoul's indigenous fighter development project, Korean Air officials said Sunday.Codenamed KF-X, the 8.5 trillion won ($8.3 billion) project calls for South Korea to develop fighter jets of the F-16 class to replace its aging fleet of F-4s and F-5s. Some 120 jets are to be put into service starting around 2025."We inked the deal with Airbus Defense and Space on Monda

The finance ministry said Tuesday it will strengthen oversight of public corporations by setting up a new management information division, while taking steps to enhance the evaluation of tax outlays.The measures are aimed at improving transparency and management as the ministry seeks to maximize operational efficiency and cut back on waste to make the most of taxpayers' money.South Korea is currently undergoing an expansion of welfare-related spending, with every effort being made not to raise t

South Korea's producer prices fell for a sixth straight month in January to hit the lowest reading in more than four years as global oil prices continued to weaken, central bank data said Tuesday.The producer price index, a barometer of future consumer inflation, reached 101.86 in January, tumbling 3.6 percent from the previous year, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The monthly reading is at the lowest level since November 2010, when it was 101.78. The January resu

South Korea and Japan agreed to end the bilateral currency swap agreement that has been maintained since 2001, the finance ministry said Monday.According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the US$10 billion swap arrangement between the Bank of Korea and the Bank of Japan will not be renewed after it expires on Feb. 23."It has been agreed by both sides after wide-ranging talks that in light of financial and economic circumstances, it may be appropriate to allow the pact to expire naturally,

Ordinary taxes paid by middle-income earners increased 6.3 times more than they did for the top 20 percent of income earners in South Korea in 2014, stoking public demand for a tax increase on the rich, official data showed Monday. According to numbers released by Statistics Korea, households with two or more family members who were classified as belonging to the middle or third tier paid an average 83,385 won (US$76.12) in taxes every month last year, a gain of 13,198 won from 70,187 won in 201

South Korea has suspended quarantine inspections of Canadian beef after the major exporter confirmed its first case of mad cow disease since 2011, the agriculture ministry here said Sunday.The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said it has stopped quarantine inspections of Canadian beef, which began Friday after Canada confirmed some beef from the Alberta province was infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease. The Canadian government said th