SEJONG -- South Korea will make use of an extra budget as soon as possible to create new jobs for young people and help industrial regions grappling with massive layoffs, the finance ministry said Monday. With the National Assembly having passed the 3.83 trillion won ($3.54 billion) supplementary budget, an extraordinary Cabinet meeting will be held later in the day to approve a budget implementation plan.As it took 45 days to pass the bill submitted by the government due to political wrangling

Companies listed on South Korea’s top-tier stock market Kospi saw their debt-to-capital ratio come to 111.4 percent in 2017, up 0.9 percentage point on-year, data showed Monday. The combined amount of liabilities of Kospi-listed firms reached 1,182.8 trillion won ($1.1 trillion), up 2.5 percent compared to a year prior, whereas the volume of capital came to 1,061.9 trillion won, up 1.7 percent, according to data compiled by the Korea Exchange.The market operator analyzed data on 598 firms

The number of foreign funds investing in the South Korean stock market has more than doubled over the decade, exceeding the 20,000 mark this year, the financial watchdog said Monday.A total of 21,328 foreign stock investment funds were registered with the Financial Supervisory Service as of the end of March, up 112.7 percent from 10 years earlier and accounting for slightly over 62 percent of foreign institutions operating in South Korea.Equity investment funds were followed by pensions and othe

The total number of people finding work in the country's small retail and wholesale sectors fell in the first quarter, a report by a local think tank showed Sunday. The findings by the Korea Institute of Finance said that the number of jobs in the key service sector was down 86,000 from a year earlier. Small businesses refer to businesses that employ one to four workers, and have generally been seen as reflective of the number of people setting up their own businesses.KIF said that this year's d

A sizable number of South Korean companies are hard pressed to repay their outstanding debt with the profit they make, a situation that could expose them to more risks amid a steady rise in interest rates, a local think tank said Sunday. The LG Economic Research Institute said 11.8 percent of local businesses are not able to effectively pay back their dues with their earnings from normal business operations.It said this percentage had actually fallen from 14.2 percent in 2012 to 8.8 percent thre

The average loan-deposit spread of local lenders reached a 3 1/2 year high of 2.35 percent in the first quarter of this year, the central bank said Sunday.   According to the Bank of Korea, the spread is the largest since the 2.44 percent tallied in the third quarter of 2014. It said the gap between interest paid by banks to their savings account holders and the interest rate for outstanding loans had fallen to 2.14 percentage points in the July-September period of 2016, but the number

The government will look into the impact of the minimum wage hike on employment, amid a heated debate over whether the increase is actually hurting entry level jobs and weighing down the local economy, the head of a special commission said Sunday.Ryu Jang-soo, the chairman of Minimum Wage Commission under the labor ministry, said his commission will delve into the real impact of the 16.4 percent raise in the minimum wage on the local economy since it went to effect in January."The minimum w

Woori Bank Co., South Korea's third-largest commercial bank, said Sunday it will transform itself into a holding company by early next year to as part of effort to expand its business portfolio. Woori Bank said the decision is aimed at expanding its businesses from traditional banking to asset management, real estate and other financial services. The bank, which is 18.5 percent owned by the government, said it aims to establish the holding company by early 2019, taking consideration of time need

As warnings of a bursting bubble and toughening state regulations have led to a drastic downturn of South Korea's digital currency market, local exchanges are struggling over how to remain viable going forward.Some have moved to diversify their businesses by making the most out of blockchain technology, but a series of incidents that have damaged public trust in the system seems to be holding them back, market watchers said Sunday.  Last week, Bithumb announced the withdrawal of its planned

South Korea's central bank is expected to freeze its policy rate at the current 1.5 percent at its upcoming monetary meeting due to low inflation pressure and the sluggish job market, a market watcher said Sunday.Scheduled to take place Thursday, the seven-member monetary policy panel under the Bank of Korea will decide whether to keep or adjust the key rate. The May meeting is the fourth round out of eight sessions set for this year.The BOK has maintained the present level in the previous three

South Korean households’ overseas spending rose 18.9 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier on increased outbound travel to foreign countries, the central bank said Saturday.South Korean households spent 8.43 trillion won (US$7.8 billion) overseas in the October-December period, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said.The data includes expenditure by South Koreans on accommodation and food while traveling or taking business trips to foreign countries.The hike in overseas spending is attrib

South Korea is feared to continue to face US trade pressure despite the amendment of a bilateral free trade deal and the recent settlement of a row over steel imports, experts said Friday.In late March, South Korea and the US revised their free trade agreement, with Seoul agreeing to open its auto market to the US in exchange for an exemption from steel tariffs.Washington formally exempted South Korea from steep tariffs on steel imports on April 30, saying the move was in line with national secu

The average annual salary of employees at South Korea's top 30 listed companies grew in the mid-2 percent range in 2017, with the growth rate for women nearly twice that for men, market trackers said Friday.The per-capita annual salary of the leading companies increased at an average rate of 2.6 percent last year from a year earlier, according to the job portals Job Korea and Albamon.Female workers of the companies saw their annual salaries expand 3.4 percent last year from the previous year, mu

PureChain, a ledger-free blockchain running on an inter-device communication system, seeks to tokenize its first business that it expects to shape the “gift economy,” its developers said Thursday.Called “Colorchain,” the new decentralized platform by Singapore-headquartered Pax Datatech will have its tokens distributed using PureChain’s technology that does not require a third-party consensus or a process for user authentication.PureChain is a decentralized system p

Standard & Poor's, a global rating agency, made a positive assessment of the South Korean economy amid eased inter-Korean tensions, the country's chief economic policymaker said Thursday."S&P sees the overall conditions surrounding the Korean economy positively, and it also views progress in the geopolitical risks involving North Korea in a favorable light," Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said after a meeting with a S&P delegation."But they expressed concerns over the