The rise in the real value of the South Korean won compared to other major currencies in recent years has lowered import prices and fueled investments in facilities and private sector consumption, a report said Friday.According to real effective exchange rate (REER) indices compiled by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the exchange rate for the South Korean currency has steadily risen and stood at 123.2 points as of the end of January from 115.34 in April 2015.REER is the weighted av

Prosecutors on Friday requested court warrants to arrest four executives of two cryptocurrency exchanges on fraud and embezzlement charges.Kim Ik-hwan, head of Coinnest, and three others are accused of pocketing billions of won from clients' accounts by transferring the money to their own private accounts, according to the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office. A court review on the request will be held early Friday, it said. They were detained for questioning Wednesday.  Prosecutors

Consumer prices in South Korea remain stable, but the government is ready to take actions to curb spikes in some items, such as agricultural goods and services, a deputy finance minister said Friday."Consumer prices in March gained 1.3 percent from a year earlier, slowing from the previous month's growth and logging a 1 percent gain for the sixth consecutive month," Ko Hung-kwon said in a meeting to assess price trends here."But some food prices surged, and the government will con

Contrary to market expectations for Celltrion to avoid short selling by moving from the second-tier Kosdaq market to the first-tier Kospi in February, the ratio of the firm’s short sellers have increased since then, data showed Thursday. Of the entire daily trading from Feb. 9 to Monday, short selling accounted for 13.8 percent. The figure saw an upshot from the yearly estimate until Feb. 9 this year, at 8.4 percent. By month, the average short selling ratio came to 13.6 percent in March,

The United States and China will likely strike a trade deal to stave off a possible trade war that could undermine the world's two biggest economies, a state-run trade agency said Thursday.The two global powers this week have moved to slap massive tariffs on each other's goods, sparking fears of a trade war."It is possible the two sides will engage in negotiations to produce a compromise deal as any implementation of retaliatory tariffs will cause catastrophic losses on the economies of the

Korea has designated Gunsan, the home to General Motors' money-losing assembly line, as an emergency response zone to provide job support and tax incentives as the southwestern city is expected to suffer high unemployment, the commerce ministry said Thursday.The designation came nearly two months after the American automaker in February announced a plan to shut down its underutilized Gunsan plant, 274 kilometers south of Seoul, by the end of May.The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said it

The government has submitted a supplementary budget worth 3.9 trillion won ($3.7 billion) in an emergency gesture to alleviate the nation’s unemployment crisis and revitalize regional economies in distress, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance on Thursday.Responding to opposition parties, which have criticized the extra spending plan as a tax-imposing populist move, the ministry says the costs may be covered without additional taxation, citing surplus tax revenue for this year

South Korea's cosmetics makers expect a rise in sales this year as China moves to lift economic measures implemented in retaliation over the deployment of a US anti-missile defense system here, industry sources said Thursday.South Korea's makeup industry have enjoyed robust growth in recent years helped by "hallyu," or the Korean Wave, referring to the growing popularity of Korean pop culture abroad.Shipments of Korean makeup products to China reached $1.56 billion in 2016 compared to

Local lenders are expected to tighten their guidelines on household loans in the second quarter of this year amid government-led measures to control the overheated real estate market, central bank data showed Thursday.The overall index measuring banks' "attitude" toward extending loans to households came to minus seven for the April-June period, compared with minus 10 a quarter earlier, according to data by the Bank of Korea.A reading below zero means banks will implement tougher scree

The government will advance its plan to raise contract prices for smaller companies to reflect the suppliers' increased costs from the latest minimum wage hike, officials said Thursday.The government and the ruling Democratic Party reached the agreement during a policy meeting to help small and medium-sized enterprises suffering from the effect of the increased labor costs."We have decided to address the time gap between labor cost increases and their calculation in contract prices in the p

The chief executive officer and high-ranking executives of South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinnest were detained Wednesday on charges of fraud and embezzlement, according to prosecutors Thursday. This is the first time an operator of a cryptocurrency exchange in Korea has been charged.Prosecutors are seeking arrest warrants for the executives, including CEO Kim Ik-hwan, in the next two days. They are alleged to have swindled customers of digitized assets for their personal accounts, prosec

Korea will decide the fate of protracted negotiations for a bilateral fisheries agreement with Japan if the two nations fail to reach a deal within this month, Seoul's oceans minister said this week.Working-level negotiations have been underway to renew their fisheries agreement to decide the fishing quota for each other's exclusive waters, but they have failed to narrow the gap for nearly two years."We have a set a deadline for working-level negotiations for the fisheries agreement by Apri

South Korea's current account surplus halved in February from a year earlier due mainly to an increase in the deficit in the service account, central bank data showed Thursday.The country's current account surplus reached $4.03 billion in February, down sharply from a surplus of $8.18 billion a year ago, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea.It marked the 72nd consecutive month of a current account surplus, which started in March 2012.The services account deficit widened to $2

Korea will shift its reliance on trade with China and the United States to emerging economies to foster new growth drivers in the face of rising protectionism, the trade ministry said Thursday.Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong announced the "New Trade Policy," which focuses on expanding trading territories and joining mega-trading blocs to boost exports of Asia's fourth-largest economy."We need to actively deal with the changing trading environment in the wake of protectionist practic

Korea recently joined forces with the United States, the European Union and several other countries in expressing concerns over China's ban on the import of plastic waste, the government said Thursday.Korea's garbage pickup services stopped collecting plastic bags and Styrofoam containers starting Monday, citing a spike in processing costs. The value of waste resources has crashed in the wake of China's ban on the importation of plastic waste from January. The development is making it hard for l