The number of active enterprises expanded by the largest figure in 10 years last year, mainly bolstered by the real estate boom, data from Statistics Korea showed.Meanwhile, the enterprise death rate -- the number of enterprises that close their doors permanently in proportion to the population of active enterprises -- was highest among restaurants and lodging businesses.A total of 913,000 new businesses were created last year, an increase of 4.2 percent from 2016. The enterprise birth rate drop

Incheon International Airport Corp. said Tuesday that the new terminal at Kuwait International Airport managed by the South Korean operator has officially opened. Kuwait International Airport is wholly owned by the Kuwaiti government, handling some 12 million travelers last year. IIAC was chosen as the operator for the new Terminal 4 through a bidding process in April. It is the first time for a foreign company to operate the Kuwaiti airport. IIAC said it has dispatched 30 officials with relevan

A listed South Korean golf course operator with a track record of doing business in North Korea hit the price ceiling Tuesday on anticipation that US business guru Jim Rogers had been nominated as the sole candidate to become the company’s outside director. Ananti, listed on second-tier bourse Kosdaq, rose 26.8 percent from Monday’s closing price. It touched the price ceiling at 12,800 won ($11.30), trading 29.8 percent higher, in late afternoon intraday trade. Ananti was the 26th-la

Kyobo Life Insurance, South Korea’s third-largest life insurance firm by total assets, announced Tuesday it would seek an initial public offering by the second half of next year to raise capital in the face of new industrywide regulations to gauge capital requirement.The decision was made during a board of directors’ meeting Tuesday at 11 a.m. in Seoul. The volume of capital it will seek to raise has yet to be determined, the company added.Kyobo will become the sixth life insura

South Korea's new finance minister on Tuesday urged companies to make investments and take the lead in creating jobs as the country makes every effort to bolster economic growth.In October, the Bank of Korea trimmed its economic growth outlook to 2.7 percent for 2018 from its earlier projection of 2.9 percent. It is lower than the finance ministry's 2.9 percent outlook and the International Monetary Fund's 2.8 percent prediction. The South Korean economy grew 3.1 percent in 2017 and 2.9 percent

The delinquency rate for South Korean banks' won-denominated loans edged up in October due to a slight rise in the number of firms that failed to repay their debts, government data showed Tuesday.The rate for bank loans more than 30 days overdue stood at 0.58 percent at the end of October, up 0.03 percentage point from a month earlier, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service. Compared with a year ago, the rate was up 0.1 percentage point, the FSS said.The delinquency rate fo

A growing number of South Koreans shopping at overseas online malls are picking Chinese sites, a tally from a credit card firm indicated Tuesday.Purchase records from Nov. 1-26, compiled by the big data center at Shinhan Card, showed a 9.8 percent increase from last year in the monetary total of goods bought from overseas Internet sites. In terms of the number of purchases, this year's total was up 16.6 percent. The figures were derived from comparisons of the same period in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

The Korea Exchange, South Korea’s sole securities market operator, decided Monday to resume transactions of Samsung BioLogics shares, about a month after the company was slapped with a trading suspension on accusations of accounting misconduct. Following the decision, investors are allowed to trade Samsung BioLogics shares on the main bourse Kospi as per normal starting Tuesday. The KRX said in a release that BioLogics’ improving profitability overshadows concerns about business

South Korea and India will hold negotiations to upgrade their existing bilateral trade pact to lower barriers between the two nations, the government here said Monday.The two nations implemented the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in January 2010 and have held six rounds of talks to push for further market liberalization.  The seventh round of CEPA talks will be held in Seoul on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss ways to further open up the goods and services market and ease coun

The wage gap between workers in large companies and small and medium-sized enterprises widened in 2014 amid a deepening polarization of the labor market, a report said Monday.According to the report published by the Bank of Korea, large businesses -- those with 300 or more workers -- paid wages 1.7 times greater than those paid to employees at smaller firms in 2014, widening from a 1.1-fold gap tallied in 1980. The large firms put a 46.1 percent wage premium on their highly-educated, skilled emp

South Korea's economy is showing signs of a gradual slowdown with export growth cooling amid sluggish private consumption, a state-run think tank said Monday. "The growth pace of exports slowed and domestic demand remained weak, implying that overall economic activity appeared to be gradually slowing," the Korea Development Institute said in its monthly evaluation of the country's economic conditions.Exports in November appeared to lose some steam, mainly due to weaker global demand fo

Almost half of South Korean women aged between 15 and 54 and married with under age children earn less than 2 million won every month, according to data released by Statistics Korea.The data revealed that there are 5.063 million married and working women with children under 18 as of April this year. Among them, 49.1 percent earned a monthly wage of less than 2 million won ($1,780). This was 10.8 percentage points higher than the percentage of overall workers -- both men and women -- earning less

SEJONG - South Korea is expanding its economic partnership with South and Central American countries, which involves co-development projects on maritime affairs in the logistics and tourism segment.Earlier this year Korea signed a free trade agreement with five Central American countries -- Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama -- which made it the first Asian country to reach the deal with a Central American trade bloc. And Guatemala is set to join the bloc after the bilateral

Woori Bank, South Korea’s fourth-largest commercial bank by total assets, has opened its fourth foreign banking center in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, according to the bank on Monday.  A foreign banking center is a specialized branch exclusively for foreign customers. They can open a bank account and receive financial services such as cross-border money transfers, currency exchange and card management.The branch opens weekdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Foreign investors’ flight from the Korean securities market eased by the end of November, followed by signs of relief in stock performances, monthly data showed Monday.Foreign investors net purchased Korean stocks and bonds worth 447 billion won ($397.2 million) throughout November, ending a losing streak of two consecutive months, according to the latest data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Service. They net sold securities worth 1.3 trillion won in September and 4.9 trillion won in