South Korea's commerce minister said Tuesday the nation's economic fundamentals remain sound despite North Korea's provocations, and called on foreign enterprises doing business here to increase their investments. Paik Un-gyu, the chief of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said in a meeting with local directors of international companies, including Boeing, 3M, IKEA, BMW and Oracle, that there is no need to be overly worried about Pyongyang's latest provocations. The policymaker then ex

South Korea's consumer confidence fell for the second month in a row in September on the North Korea risk and Seoul's row with Beijing over a missile defense system, a central bank poll showed Tuesday.The composite consumer sentiment index for September stood at 107.7, down 2.2 points from the previous month, according to the survey by the Bank of Korea. In August, the index fell 1.3 points from July. A reading above 100 means optimists outnumber pessimists."The issue of North Korea's nucle

South Korean companies' equity and debt sales plunged more than 24 percent in August from the previous month due mainly to one-off and seasonal factors, government data showed Tuesday. Local companies raised 10.9 trillion won ($9.6 billion) by selling stocks and bonds last month, down 24.4 percent from July, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service. Stock sales, including seven initial public offerings, tumbled 69.4 percent on-month to 389.3 billion won in August.The fin

The Improper Solicitation and Graft Act has continuously been questioned over the crippling effect it allegedly holds over domestic consumption, but after a year in implementation, its impact on most sectors of the economy turned out to have been limited, according to the latest data.The anti-graft law, often dubbed the Kim Young-ran law after its initiator, did weigh down on upmarket restaurants, floricultural industries and liquor shops but key economic indexes displayed little fluctuation, th

The growing signs of the Korean economy weakening amid deteriorating conditions at home and abroad are prompting the government to work on additional stimulus measures.Economic indicators have taken a steep downturn in recent months.The on-year increase in the number of employees remained at 212,000 in August, the lowest in four and a half years, according to Statistics Korea.Output in the sector of restaurants and accommodating facilities fell 4.3 percent from a year earlier in July, reflecting

Nearly half of the entire trade volume in South Korea’s stock market this year until mid-September stemmed from day trading, indicating individual traders’ growing tendency to seek instant profit from stocks with high price volatility, data showed Monday. From January to Sept. 15, day traders bought or sold some 48 percent of shares, or 89.5 billion shares, on the first-tier and second-tier markets, according to data by the sole market operator the Korea Exchange. This comes in contr

While the world economy is on a recovering trend, South Korea continues to suffer from aggravating unemployment, particularly among the youth, data showed Monday.The average unemployment rate among the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has steadily declined over the past six months. However, that of South Korea has continued to surge for the past four years.South Korea’s youth unemployment rate is 0.9 percentage points higher than the 9.8 percent

South Korean stocks ended lower Monday as foreign investors and institutions sold local stocks amid escalating tensions between North Korea and the United States. The Korean won rose against the US dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 8.31 points, or 0.35 percent, to 2,380.40.Foreign investors offloaded shares worth more than 33.6 billion won ($29.6 million) and institutions sold more than 47.8 billion won. Park Chun-young, an analyst at Daishin Securities, said the d

About half of South Korea's manufacturing firms have hiring plans next year, the central bank said in a report Monday.The Bank of Korea said 52 percent of 279 firms across the country said they plan to hire new recruits next year and among them, 38.9 percent said they will increase the number of recruits in 2018 compared with this year.By sector, 52.6 percent of information technology firms said they could hire more people in the new year vis-a-vis 2017. On the other hand, 10.5 percent of IT com

South Korea's exports of health care and cosmetics goods continued to grow in the first half of this year on the back of strong global demand, government data showed Monday.Outbound shipments of locally produced drugs, medical equipment and cosmetics were valued at $5.41 billion in the January-June period, up 13.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Exports of cosmetics products surged 20 percent on-year, the data showed, follow

South Korean stocks traded lower late Monday morning as institutions offloaded large-cap stocks on profit taking.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 9.47 points, or 0.40 percent, to 2,379.24 as of 11:15 a.m.Kim Ye-eun, an analyst at Cape Investment & Securities, said institutions sold large-cap stocks in apparent profit-taking, which are to blame for losses on the main bourse. Large-cap stocks were mixed across the board.Market bellwether Samsung Electronics Co. gained

Income polarization has deepened in South Korea during the past decades amid a growing number of high income earners coming from already rich and well-educated parents, a report said Monday.The report written by professor Ju Byeong-ki of Seoul National University said income has been set not only by the efforts of individuals but also the economic clout and education of their parents. The report, which analyzed the disposable income of selected households between 1998 and 2014, showed inequ

Stocks of solar energy-related stocks in South Korea traded sharply lower Monday on concerns that the United States may take safeguard measures against solar panels imported from China and other countries, analysts said.OCI, South Korea's top producer of polysilicon, had sunk 5.16 percent to 101,000 won ($89) on the Seoul bourse as of 9:55 a.m., and No. 2 player Hanwha Chemical Corp. was 6.6 percent down at 33,250 won.Polysilicon is an essential raw material for solar cells to convert sunlight i

South Korean stocks opened lower Monday as North Korea risks continued to weigh on the main index.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 2.22 points, or 0.09 percent, to 2,386.49 in the first 15 minutes of trading.The decline came amid heightened tensions between North Korea and the United States.US Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers flew in international airspace off North Korea's eastern coast in the latest show of force against the isolated country. North Korean leader Kim Jong-

A quarterly report by the Bank for International Settlements showed that the debt-service ratio for the households in South Korea reached 12.5 percent, up 0.7 percentage points from a year ago in the first quarter this year.This is the highest level since the first quarter in 1999 when the relevant data started to be collected.