South Korean banks’ foreign currency liquidity conditions remained sound in June, the financial watchdog said Monday.The foreign currency liquidity ratio of local banks came to 107.2 percent at end-June this year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.The ratio measures the percentage of a bank’s foreign currency assets maturing in three months or less to its foreign currency debts with the same maturity. The advisable level is 85 percent.Non-bank financial firms, including brokerage ho

South Korea's exports of information technology (IT) products rose from a year earlier in August, continuing their on-year growth for the 12th consecutive month, the government said Monday.Outbound shipments of IT products reached US$14.5 billion last month, up 11.4 percent from the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.The country's trade surplus in the IT sector widened to $8.13 billion, the second highest in the country's history, as its imports

Cigarette consumption is expected to reach a record low in the first half of this year due to increased regulations against smoking and heightened health awareness, according to industry data.The consistently falling consumption of cigarettes is likely to further dent the bottom lines of tobacco giants such as KT&G, Philip Morris and BAT, market analysts said.Korea’s aggregate sales amounted to 89.3 billion cigarettes in Korea last year, down almost 1 percent from 90 billion a year ago.KT&G, Kor

Sales of pension lotteries in South Korea shrank by nearly half on-year during the first six months of this year as public interest in monthly payout seems to be petering out, government data showed Monday.According to the data provided by the finance ministry, sales of "Pension Lottery 520" came to 68.1 billion won (US$62.5 million) during the January-June period, down 48.1 percent from 131.3 billion won tallied a year earlier. The pension lottery product pays out prize money to winners in mont

Escalating fears of radiation-contaminated water from Fukushima has boosted the sales of fishery products imported from non-Japan areas, while the sales of so-called “domestic products” took a nosedive, figures showed on Sunday. Domestic products include fish that were caught in Korean waters in the close vicinity of Japan. The sales of imported fish rose drastically last month ― 56.5 percent for Norwegian salmon, 48.1 percent for Ecuadorean and Peruvian shrimp ― compared to last year. For U.S.

South Korea is getting "safe haven status" from foreign investors as its current account surplus and the accumulated foreign reserves are serving as defense against possible cross-border capital flight, experts said Sunday.South Korea used to suffer from massive foreign capital outflows whenever a financial crisis cropped up. But Asia's fourth-largest economy is now differentiating itself from other emerging countries such as India and Indonesia which are struggling to curb capital outflows and

Flight attendants were found to have continued to smuggle goods on overseas trips in defiance of strict regulations, the Korea Customs Service said Friday.According to the agency, there has so far been a total of 19 cases of smuggling this year involving flight attendants of both local and foreign airlines. The combined value of the goods comes to 44 million won ($40,200).The most smuggled items include designer bags, watches, cosmetics and jewelry, according to customs officials.Under the regul

The labor and management of South Korea’s largest carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. tentatively agreed Thursday on a wage deal, putting an end to the ongoing strike.During a new round of negotiations, the two sides narrowed their differences and came up with an interim agreement, which will be put to vote on next Monday. The agreement came after 25 rounds of negotiations over a wage hike and other labor issues that lasted for the past 101 days. Upon the beginning of the talks, Hyundai’s unionized worke

South Korea and China have reached an agreement on the modality or basic guidelines for their negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA), the Seoul government said Friday.The agreement came at the end of three-day talks that ended Thursday in Beijing, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy."At this week's meeting, the two sides reached an agreement on the modality for the FTA, concluding the first stage negotiations for the Korea-China FTA that began in May last year

South Korean President Park Geun-hye called Thursday for closer macroeconomic coordination among the world's top economies, urging advanced countries to be more careful when changing their monetary policies.Park made the appeal during the opening session of the summit of the Group of 20 major economies in Russia's second-largest city, saying economies around the world are interlinked so much that it is difficult for any one of them to grow alone."In a situation like this where global economies m

South Korea expanded its import ban on Japan's fisheries products to include all fisheries products from the radiation-hit Fukushima and seven other adjacent prefectures, the government said Friday.The move comes as a widespread radiation scare in South Korea is leading to a sharp drop in the consumption of fisheries products."The measure comes as our people's concerns are growing over the fact that hundreds of tons of radiation contaminated water are leaked daily from the site of Japan's nuclea

Koreans in their 40s and 50s spend up to a million won ($910) more than other age brackets on monthly expenses, a study showed. 　“Marketing strategies from now on should target middle-aged females that hold economic power,” said Kim Dong-yeol, a principal researcher at Hyundai Research Institute. The institute carried out a telephone survey of 1,014 Korean adults. 　Among different age groups who participated in the survey, men and women in their 40s spent approximately 2.93 million won a month,

South Korea continues to see its recovery momentum remain "subdued" but the latest indicators are pointing to a "moderate" improvement down the road, a state-run think tank said Thursday."Korea's economy remained subdued, but indicators are increasing turning positive, signaling a moderate improvement," the Korea Development Institute (KDI) said in its monthly report analyzing the latest economic trend. The report is based on major indicators recently unveiled by the government including corpora