Foreign stock ownership reaches 342 trillion won at yearend, accounting for 30% of total Foreigners have earned 350 trillion won ($307 billion) from investment in Korean shares over the past 20 years, according to the local brokerage industry.Their average earnings since the stock market opened

South Korea’s central bank plans to make maintaining price stability its top priority next year as Asia’s fourth-largest economy remains dogged by persistent inflation risks, its chief said Friday.“Price stability has emerged more than ever before as an important matter of national concern,” Bank of Korea Gov. Kim Choong-soo said in his New Year’s message. “The task before us is to pay even closer attention to achieving our inflation target in 2012.”Kim’s stress on price stability comes as the c

Eurozone woes, concerns on slower export growth, stronger Korean won likely to affect financial marketsEvery year has a theme, in retrospect, that helps explain what dominated the country’s economy. In 2011, the eurozone debt crisis was the undisputed prime culprit in putting a dampener on the Korean economy. As the country rings in the new year, hopes are ripe that things will be different; unfortunately, the theme of 2012 might be dishearteningly familiar as the eurozone’s problems are expecte

Korea’s financial watchdog unveiled on Friday a set of new initiatives that include the establishment of a third stock market for small companies in 2012, heralding a new phase for the country’s direct funding mechanism.In its 2012 policy report, the Financial Services Commission said the envisioned stock market will be dedicated to small and medium enterprises so that they can secure fresh funds for new investments. Korea runs two stock markets. The main bourse, KOSPI, is made up of blue-chip c

The government logged a cumulative fiscal surplus of 3 trillion won ($2.6 billion) in the January-October period in 2011, but predicted the account will post a deficit in the year-end fiscal settlement, the Finance Ministry said Friday.The cumulative surplus for the first 10 months in 2011 is up 12 trillion won from same time last year. The government logged a 9.9 trillion won deficit during the same time in 2010. “The surplus increase in October was largely because of the temporary increase in

South Korea‘s industrial output growth slowed in November, stoking worries that the nation’s economy is losing steam due to rising global uncertainties, a government report showed Thursday.According to the report by Statistics Korea, production in the mining and manufacturing industries expanded 5.6 percent last month from a year earlier, slowing from a 6.3 percent advance in October.Industrial output also fell 0.4 percent on-month in November, marking the second straight month of contraction. I