The ratio of South Korea's financial debt to gross domestic product reached nearly 100 percent last year amid rapidly rising household lending, a report showed Thursday.South Korea's combined household financial credit and nonprofit organizations accounted for 95.6 percent of the country's GDP in 2016, up 4.6 percentage points from a year earlier, according to the report by Rep. Kim Du-kwan submitted to parliament. The country GDP was tallied at $1.64 trillion last year. The debt-to-GDP ratio ha

South Korea's central bank on Thursday revised up its growth outlook for Asia's fourth-largest economy this year to 3 percent as it held its key rate steady for October.In a widely expected move, the monetary policy board of the Bank of Korea voted to keep the key rate at 1.25 percent, extending its wait-and-see approach for the 16th consecutive month.In June last year, South Korea's central bank made a surprise rate cut, citing the need to stimulate the lackluster economy amid a prolonged econo

South Korean stocks opened slightly higher Thursday, taking a cue from overnight gains on Wall Street.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index climbed 2.70 points, or 0.11 percent, to 2,485.61 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Market kingpin Samsung Electronics shed 1.35 percent , and SK hynix, a major chipmaker, fell 0.99 percent.In contrast, Hyundai Motor, the No. 1 automaker, moved up 1.66 percent, and top chemical firm LG Chem rose 0.91 percent.POSCO, the steelmaker, advanced 3.44 p

Korea’s policy to develop energy and other mineral resources abroad has been inconsistent, biased toward short-term achievement and swayed by political winds.As a result, the country’s state-run energy and resources firms have shown a pattern of acquiring overseas oil rigs and mining fields at high prices and disposing of them at low prices. Over the past several years, Korea has swung from an aggressive push for overseas resources development to a hasty withdrawal from it.Under the

The United States did not designate South Korea and four other major trading partners currency manipulators, but it has vowed to closely monitor their currency practices."No major trading partner of the United States met the standards... for currency manipulation in the first half of 2017," the Treasury Department said Tuesday in a report made to Congress.Still, the Treasury placed South Korea, China, Germany, Japan and Switzerland on its Monitoring List for special attention. Taiwan w

South Korea’s export prices increased slightly last month from August largely due to rising prices of oil and raw materials, the Bank of Korea said Wednesday.Based on local currency, the prices rose 0.9 percent in September from the previous month, driven by a rise in oil prices that raised petrochemical product prices.Export prices increased 10.9 percent on-year in September, marking the highest since March 2009.Meanwhile, import prices also rose 1.7 percent in September from a month earl

The South Korean government said Wednesday that it will promote the "social economy" sector in a bid to expand its contribution to employment and build up a social safety net.The Presidential Committee on Job Creation held a meeting chaired by President Moon Jae-in and announced a plan to boost the country's social economy.The social economy is a third sector that creates social value through economic activities based on communities and voluntary institutions. They are mostly made up o

The Moon Jae-in government unveiled Wednesday its final version of a road map aimed at creating over 800,000 jobs in the public sector in the next five years as part of its efforts to tackle the country's rising unemployment amid slowing growth.  Under the plan, some 200,000 public sector temporary workers who are expected to work for the next two years or nine months a year, will be switched to full time by 2020, according to the Presidential Committee on Job Creation. Of those, 70,000 wil

The number of employed people in Korea reached 26.84 million in September, marking the largest monthly employment growth since May, according to data compiled by Statistics Korea on Wednesday. The government data showed that the unemployment rate hit 3.4 percent last month, down 0.2 percentage point from a year ago. The number of newly employed also marked an increase of 314,000 compared to September last year. Korea’s employment rate last month also saw a 0.3 percentage point increas

South Korean stocks finished almost flat Wednesday, after paring earlier gains, as investors opted to cash in recent gains amid a bullish run, market analysts said. The Korean won rose against the US dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index edged down 1.46 points, or 0.06 percent, to close at 2,482.91.Trade volume was moderate at 241 million shares worth 5.72 trillion won ($5.1 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 510 to 289.The local stock market opened higher as top market

Foreign investors offloaded South Korean stocks and bonds worth $4.3 billion in September due to profit-taking amid North Korea risks, the central bank said Wednesday.Foreign investors sold local stocks and bonds worth $830 million and $3.47 billion, respectively, the Bank of Korea said.It marked the second straight month of sell-offs by foreign investors. In August, they sold South Korean stocks and bonds worth $3.25 billion, marking the first month of sell-offs since November 2016, when foreig

South Korean stocks traded lower Wednesday morning, paring back earlier increases, as investors attempted to cash in recent gains.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 4.22 points, or 0.17 percent, to 2,480.15 as of 11:15 a.m. Market kingpin Samsung Electronics was 0.88 percent down, and SK hynix, a major chipmaker, dipped 3.35 percent.In contrast, Naver, the country's top Internet portal operator, advanced 5.60 percent, and Hyundai Motor, the No. 1 automaker, surged 2.34 percent.

The Moon Jae-in administration will have to spend over 7.3 trillion won ($6.4 billion) in the 2018-2020 period to subsidize the raising of the country's minimum wage to 10,000 won ($8.8) per hour, a report said Wednesday.The Moon government said in July it will raise the minimum wage by 16.4 percent to 7,530 won per hour next year in the biggest wage hike in nearly two decades. Moon hopes the wage hike will narrow the income gap and boost private consumption to help revive the sagging econo

More than 46,000 under-age minors own an average of 112.74 million won ($99,549) in inherited assets, including 304 who are less than one year old, a report from the National Tax Service said Wednesday.The data, submitted to the National Assembly for parliamentary audits, covered the 2008-2016 period.The report showed 46,542 minors aged under 18 held 5.24 trillion won in handed-down wealth. Financial assets accounted for 2.81 trillion won, or 39.7 percent, while real estate amounted to 1.69 tril

The government collected 6.6 trillion won ($5.82 billion) in taxes last year by bringing the underground economy into the official economy, finance ministry data showed Wednesday.Records for 2013-2016 submitted to the National Assembly for parliamentary audits showed the government had gained a yearly average of 5.39 trillion won in additional taxes in comparison to 2012 through such a process. The sum in 2013 totaled 3.19 trillion won, which grew to 5.62 trillion won in 2014, 6.14 trillion won