South Korea's share in the Chinese import market is weakening, likely to fall to under 10 percent this year despite strong exports to the neighbor country led by semiconductors and petrochemicals, trade data showed Tuesday.Statistics from the Korea Center for International Finance, data firm CEIC and the trade industry said South Korean products accounted for 9.4 percent of China's imports in monetary terms for the January-August period this year.South Korea's market share in Chinese imports had

Imports of electronic cigarettes more than doubled after the government raised taxes on conventional tobacco in 2015 to discourage smoking, government data showed Tuesday.Industry sources attribute the sharp rise to smokers switching to e-cigarettes which are exempted from higher taxes.The government increased taxes on cigarettes by 2,000 won ($1.70) per pack from Jan. 1, 2015, raising the price to 4,500 won per pack, and compelled tobacco companies to place graphic images showing the harmful ef

South Korea and China were to hold another meeting Tuesday to discuss whether to extend the existing currency swap deal, the head of South Korea's central bank said.Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said an expiration is not necessarily all that important as the two sides are holding negotiations on the deal."It would be good if everything is concluded before the existing deal expires, but it may not be the case (in the process of consultations)," Lee told reporters at the BOK headquarter

South Korean shares opened sharply higher Tuesday, boosted by technology stocks as investors displayed optimism over third-quarter earnings. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 32.61 points, or 1.36 percent, to 2,427.08 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Most large caps had mixed fortunes, with market kingpin Samsung Electronics jumping 4.49 percent.Top automaker Hyundai Motor fell 0.33 percent, while top steelmaker POSCO rose 1.42 percent.The local currency was trading at 1,

South Korea's financial market remained stable during the 10-day Chuseok holiday despite concerns surrounding North Korean provocations, state regulators said Monday.The Financial Supervisory Service said after a market review meeting that the country's credit default swaps premium stood at 69.9 basis points as of Friday, down from 73.8 bp on Sept. 29, just before the start of the holiday. CDS reflects the cost of hedging credit risk on sovereign debt with a rise implying a deterioration in the

The North Korea risk triggered by the country's nuclear and missile provocations emerged as confidence in South Korea's economy started to gain some momentum, the head of the central bank said Monday.Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol, after chairing an economic-financial assessment meeting, said that there is a need to carefully keep tabs on uncertainties surrounding Pyongyang. Local media has been pressing the BOK in regards to the overall health of the economy, which could allow the central bank

Korean builders are struggling with deteriorating conditions at home and abroad, raising concerns over the impact of the slumping construction industry on the country’s economy.Local construction orders dropped 3.4 percent from a year earlier in August, following a 33.6 percent decrease in the previous month, according to data from Statistics Korea. The value of accomplished construction works across the country also declined 2 percent on-month in August.This downward trend is set to

Common stock under Samsung saw combined 111.5 trillion won gain in asset value this year while awarding 6 trillion won in increased stock wealth to members of Samsung’s owner family

Slowdown in South Korea's economic recovery is expected to cause the country's growth rate to hover under 1 percent for the second quarter in a row, forecast data by the government, central bank and local think tanks showed Monday.According to the estimates, economic growth for the third quarter will likely be in the mid zero percent level, and be similar to the 0.6 percent numbers tallied for the April-June period of this year. The latest predictions based on data provided by the Bank of Korea,

The South Korean economy is currently in an expansionary stage that is notable for being very long and sluggish, the parliamentary budget office said Monday.The report by National Assembly Budget Office based on various official coincident composite and cycle of coincident indices, showed Asia's fourth-largest economy hit bottom in early 2013 and has been making a comeback ever since."The economy has effectively expanded for 52 months as of July," NABO said. It added this is the longes

One in three South Koreans have borrowed money to buy houses, and they took a greater amount of loans than other debtors, becoming one of the main reasons behind the ballooning household debt in Asia's fourth-largest economy, a report showed Monday. A total of 18.57 million South Koreans, 36 percent of the total population, borrowed 1,439 trillion won ($1.2 trillion) from local lenders as of June, with each holding 77.47 million won of debt on average, according to the office of Rep. Chung Sye-k

Exports of South Korean ramyun instant noodles, beer and dried laver to China have surged despite the diplomatic row over the deployment of an advanced anti-missile system here, government data showed Monday.According to data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Rural Affairs exports of the three products from January through August of this year reached to around $150 million. This is equivalent to 18 percent of the country's processed food and farm exports in the same period that was v

The number of self-employed South Koreans who run businesses without any employees is the fourth-largest among the world’s major nations, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Sunday. 　According to the OECD’s Entrepreneurship at a Glance 2017 report, the number of self-employed workers in Korea was 3.98 million, the fourth-highest among all 35 OECD member countries as well as Lithuania, Romania and South Africa. 　The country’s numbe

Korean fintech firm Kona I has partnered with payment services provider AirPlus International to offer cards using biometric authentication technology, according to the firm Sunday. The technology will enable cardholders to use fingerprints for verification instead of personal identification numbers or signatures. The firm expects to “speed up transaction time and provide increased convenience and security” through the biometric authentication.  Cardholders will not need to char

South Korea’s main bourse index Kospi rose the fifth-fastest among the major indices of Group of 20 economies this year, data compiled by Korea Exchange showed Sunday.The Kospi soared 17.1 percent this year from 2,026.46 to 2,372.57 as of Sept. 27, following those of Argentina, Turkey, Brazil and Italy. Argentina’s Merval Index topped the list by jumping 49.4 percent over the cited period. This came in sync with the rallies in the G-20 countries. Nine of them saw their major indices