A widening gap between South Korea’s large, export-oriented companies and its domestically focused smaller enterprises, in terms of both earnings and employment, highlights the need for a pro-corporate policy across the board, economists say.Small and midsized enterprises have been hit harder by the increased costs stemming from a set of labor-friendly measures taken by President Moon Jae-in’s administration in its pursuit of “income-led growth.”Under these circumstances,

South Korea's unemployment rate rose slightly in August due to a fall in employment in the retail and manufacturing sectors, with poorer-than-expected job creation showing no signs of a letup, government data showed Wednesday.The unemployment rate stood at 4 percent last month, up 0.4 percentage point from a year earlier, according to the report compiled by Statistics Korea.The number of employed people reached 26.9 million in August, up 3,000 from the same month in 2017, according to the data.

AlphaBit Cryptocurrency Exchange (ABCC), a Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange, said Tuesday it will proactively push its expansion into the South Korean market.Last month, the exchange entered the Seoul market by opening its Korean website, and it plans to come up with a mobile trading app next month."South Korea is one of the most active cryptocurrency markets in the world, and we are happy to come to this market," ABCC's CEO Calvin Cheng was quoted as saying by the company's off

The Korea Exchange, South Korea’s sole market operator, will list an exchange-traded fund Wednesday that tracks an index built on big data technology. 　The Kodex Secondary Battery Industry ETF, provided by Samsung Asset Management, will mark the first to use this methodology for this purpose, according to Ko Young-tae, an official in charge of ETF listings at the KRX.The big data techniques will include semantic analyses centering on online materials such as disclosures, investor relations

[THE INVESTOR] Mirae Asset Global Investments, Korea’s largest asset management firm, is leading global investments in innovative technologies that power the fourth industrial revolution.Mirae Asset G2 Innovation Fund, which invests in promising companies in the US and China, posted 23.51 percent of yearly rate of return as of last week, according to market researcher KG Zeroin, becoming the most profitable global equity fund in the industry.The fund invests in companies that develop cutti

Hurdles that impede the flow of cross-border transactions have created cryptocurrency price gaps of more than 40 percent between Korea and other countries, researchers from South Korea’s central bank said Tuesday.The Bank of Korea researchers added that the underlying factors were unlikely to disappear in the near future, meaning the so-called “kimchi premium” is likely to endure for some time. The term “kimchi premium” refers to the gap in cryptocurrency prices on

South Korean credit card firms saw their card loans soar nearly 17 percent on-year in the first half of the year as tougher bank loan screenings forced borrowers to resort to them, industry data showed Tuesday, The country's seven stand-alone card firms -- Shinhan, KB Kookmin, Woori, Hana, Samsung, Hyundai and Lotte -- extended 20.85 trillion won ($18.5 billion) in the January-March period, up 16.7 percent from a year earlier.The figure marks a sharp increase from the 2.8 percent on-year gain re

A former senior official of the market watchdog Financial Supervisory Service has been arrested for colluding with a private money lender in rigging the stock price of his company, prosecutors said Monday.The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office said that it arrested a former deputy governor of the FSS, identified by his surname Park, along with a private lender surnamed Seo, on charges of breaching the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act.Park, who is also the form

A steep decline in domestic investments is becoming a main drawback on the country’s economic growth, with projections suggesting it is likely to fall short of the government’s target of 2.9 percent this year.Investments in facility, construction and intellectual property production dropped on-quarter in the April-June period, according to data released by the Bank of Korea last week. It marked the first time investments had fallen simultaneously in the three segments since the secon

South Korean investors on Monday began to rush to stocks in business areas related to the production of face masks and the development of vaccines, after the recent return of Middle East respiratory syndrome.But foreign investors contributed little to the sharp upward trend in demand for these stocks.  Upon market opening at 9 a.m., GeneOne Life Science, a Korean drugmaker known to have been pursuing development of a MERS vaccine; and Okong, a maker of adhesive products including disposable

South Korea’s 11 real estate trust companies logged a combined 285.3 billion won ($253.1 million) net profit in the first half of 2018, surpassing their performance in all previous half-years, preliminary data showed Monday.  The figure represented an on-year increase of 17.6 percent, and business was in the black for all 11 companies, according to the Financial Supervisory Service, Korea’s financial watchdog.Meanwhile, the companies’ operating profits soared 17.1 percent

Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon left for Vladivostok on Monday to attend an annual international economic forum and hold meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.About 6,000 people are expected to attend the Eastern Economic Forum that Putin has hosted in Vladivostok every year since 2015, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Abe and Mongolian President Khaltmaa Battulga. The three-day trip will be Lee's first to Russia as prime minister.During the visi

This is the 61st in a series of articles analyzing major companies traded on the tech-heavy Kosdaq market. -- Ed.South Korea’s leading smart card part manufacturer Kona I is gaining market presence as a reloadable prepaid card provider, catalyzed by a series of events over the past couple of months.Analysts have expressed optimism that the Seoul-headquartered firm, which has been running at a loss since 2016, can make turnaround by the end of this year.As of Friday, Kona I was the 193rd-la

South Korean stocks will move within a tight range as investors may remain skittish over the escalating trade tension between the United States and China and rising odds of a Federal Reserve rate hike in September, analysts said Saturday.    The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) finished at 2,281.58 on Friday, down 1.77 percent from a week ago.     The index fell every session except Tuesday on concerns of trade disputes that caused inves

Inbound travelers increase amid alleviated geopolitical risks on the Korean Peninsula