The South Korean government will consider expanding the number of ports of call across the globe for national vessels as part of measures to minimize the impact of Hanjin Shipping’s court receivership on the country’s exports. According to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries on Sunday, senior officials from nine economic-related ministries discussed additional measures to deal with the possible impact of the fallout of the country’s largest shipper that applied for a court receivership last Wed

Gwangmyeong in western Gyeonggi Province was little more than a small commuter town before Mayor Yang Ki-dae took office in 2010. Six years later, Gwangmyeong has grown into a major city with a population of about 350,000.Now, the mayor aims to turn the city into a global logistics hub. “I am going to walk into an uncharted road to make the dream of a second take-off come true,” Mayor Yang said. As part of such a project, Gwangmyeong inked an agreement in June with Hunchun City, northeast of Chi

In Korea’s export-oriented economic model, domestic households have been largely neglected. In order to support large corporations to sell more cars, ships and TVs to global consumers and earn more precious dollars, consumers at home were reduced to a mere source of labor. Using low wages and high savings to channel ample funds into the corporate sector was seen beneficial for the economy. This, according to former Bank of Korea Governor Park Seung, is the root cause of many of Korea’s current e

Economy expands 0.8% on-quarter, faster than expected

Japanese shipbuilder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is mulling an alliance with three other shipbuilders to revive the sluggish sector and give it an edge over its rivals South Korea and China, Nikkei reported Wednesday. A successful alliance with Oshima, Namura and Imabari is expected to create the second-largest tonnages, behind the world’s No.1 shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries. Hyundai tops the global shipbuilding market with 6.2 million tons of ships in 2015, according to a Nikkei report ba

South Korea's exports posted the first on-year rise in 20 months in August on the back of brisk demand for chips and flat displays, the trade ministry said Thursday.Outbound shipments came to $40.1 billion last month, up 2.6 percent from the same month last year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.The upturn snapped a record 19th straight months of negative growth that began in January 2015.Imports also made a turnaround to edge up 0.1 percent on-year to $34.8 billion, recor

South Korea's consumer prices increased at the slowest pace in 16 months, rekindling concerns of possible deflation in Asia's fourth-largest economy saddled with a protracted slump in domestic demand and falling exports, government data showed Thursday.The country's consumer price index rose 0.4 percent last month from a year earlier, staying below the 1 percent level for four straight months, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.The August figure also marked the lowest on-year gai

The 2017 budget proposed by the government has surpassed 400 trillion won ($358 billion) for the first time.Officials said the government increased the budget by 3.7 percent to spend more on job creation, welfare benefits, education and defense.As a result, a large portion of the spending was allocated to the health, welfare and labor sectors, with about 130 trillion won set aside for these areas. In particular, 17.5 trillion won was earmarked for job creation projects. The requested budget for

South Korea‘s industrial output advanced for the third month in a row in July on a rise in chips and chemical production, according to a report by Statistics Korea. Production in the mining, manufacturing, gas and electricity industries rose 1.6 percent last month from a year ago while that in the service sector added 2.7 percent from a year earlier.

Data from the Ministry of Employment and Labor showed this week South Korea’s wage gap between high school and university graduates is smaller than the average of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.The average wage of the country’s university graduates is 37 percent higher than that of high school graduates. The OECD average wage gap is 56 percent.This finding seems to betray the general perception in academic background-oriented Korean society that those with college dipl

Sales of lottery tickets in South Korea rose 6.9 percent in the first six months of 2016 from a year earlier, on rising demand for chance games amid a prolonged economic slump, government data showed Wednesday.Lottery sales stood at 1.89 trillion won ($1.69 billion) in the January-June period, up from the previous year's 1.77 trillion won, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.The first-half amount accounted for 50.3 percent of the 2016 sales target of 3.76 trillion