South Korea logged a trade surplus for the 21st straight month in October thanks to relatively robust exports growth, customs data showed Thursday.South Korea's exports came to $50.5 billion last month, up 7.2 percent from the same month a year earlier, while imports grew 5.2 percent on-year to $45.6 billion, according to the data provided by the Korea Customs Service. As a result, Korea logged $4.9 billion in trade surplus last month, marking the 21st month of a surplus in a row since February

Half of Korean firms say business in China unsuccessful: poll

Central bank freezes benchmark interest rate at 2.5% on global economic recovery

Government to encourage companies to boost part-time job creation

A Russian investment corporation said Wednesday that it will launch a $500 million “joint investment platform” with South Korea‘s sovereign wealth fund in a move to facilitate trade and investment cooperation between the two countries.The deal was reached between the Russian Direct Investment Fund and the Korea Investment Corporation. It was announced in time for the summit talks between Korean President Park Geun-hye and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Seoul.“The parties intend to invest in

South Korea's jobless rate inched up in October from a month earlier but job creation accelerated, raising hopes that labor market conditions are improving, a government report showed Wednesday.According to the report by Statistics Korea, the jobless rate stood at 2.8 percent last month, up from 2.7 percent in September.The jobless rate adjusted for inflation remained unchanged at 3 percent over the cited period.Job creation is picking up speed. The number of employed people was 25.54 million in

A U.S. decision to relax its own restrictions on beef imports is expected to affect South Korea and other nations with regulations on American beef, a U.S. official said Tuesday."We anticipate these changes could convince other countries to remove any remaining restrictions on U.S. cattle and cattle products," Lyndsay Cole, the official at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), told Yonhap News Agency.In early November, the agency affiliated with the Department of Agriculture (U

Korea Electric Power Corp., South Korea’s state-run energy company, said Tuesday that its third-quarter net income rose 1.8 percent from a year ago on the back of higher electricity prices during the summer.Net profit came to 973.66 billion won ($909.6 million) in the July-September period, compared with 956.23 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. Sales rose 6.8 percent to 14.28 trillion won in the period, but operating profit fell 18.8 percent to 1.55 trillion wo

South Korea’s brokerage houses slashed their fourth-quarter earnings outlook for domestic listed firms this month, data showed Tuesday, due mainly to the prolonged slump in the local economy.The operating-profit outlook for firms listed on the main bourse came to 34.4 trillion won ($32.1 billion) for the October-December period as of Tuesday, down 4.4 percent from an estimate made a month earlier, according to the data compiled by SK Securities Co.The outlook covers listed companies for which on

Korean households consume some 2 million tons of kimchi per year, making the fermented side dish’s ingredients key factors in the nation’s price index ― especially during the kimchi-making season in late fall and early winter.In consideration of the kimchi crises that have jolted the domestic economy over the past few years, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has recently introduced the “kimchi index.” The kimchi index, indicating the costs of 13 key ingredients such as cabbage,

South Korea's import prices declined for the 14th straight month in October as oil prices fell and the local currency strengthened against the U.S. dollar, the central bank said Tuesday.In local currency terms, the country's import prices declined 7.3 percent in October from a year earlier, smaller than an 8.1 percent on-year fall in September, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).It marked the 14th straight month of on-year declines in import prices since September last year when such prices di

South Korea’s exports of information technology products rose 11.6 percent from a year earlier in October, data showed Monday, apparently due to the rising global demand for mobile devices.Outbound shipments of IT products reached US$16.23 billion last month, marking the highest amount since the $15.15 billion tallied in May, according to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.South Korea’s trade surplus in the IT sector also widened to an all-time high by jumping 19.7 percent on-year