South Korea's central bank is likely to hold its key rates steady this month as soft economic growth and subdued inflation will allow it to sit on the sidelines, a leading provider of economic analysis said Sunday.The Bank of Korea is set to hold its rate-review session Thursday to decide whether to keep or adjust the all-time low rate of 1.25 percent."Further interest rate cuts are firmly off the cards despite below-potential growth," Moody's Analytics said in an economic preview, not

South Korean shares may fall to around the 2,360 level next week as the customs office is widely expected to release weakening export data, with all eyes on the outcome of the Jackson Hole meeting, market watchers said Saturday.On Friday, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index edged up 2.67 points, or 0.11 percent, at 2,378.51. It was up 0.9 percent from a week earlier.This week, the KOSPI index traded in a tight range as investors remained cautious awaiting cues from the US Federal Res

The employment rate of South Korean women in their 30s hit a record high in the first half of this year, data showed Saturday, as the government has taken a series of measures to bring stay-at-home moms back to work.Statistics Korea said the employment rate of women in their 30s stood at 59.2 percent, the highest half-year figure since 1999 when the statistics office began compiling relevant data. The employment rate of women in their 30s has been on the rise in recent years as women delay marri

With Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong sentenced to five years behind bars Friday for bribery, embezzlement and flight of capital, Samsung Electronics shares dropped over 1 percent.Samsung Electronics closed at 2,351,000 won ($2,080), down 1.05 percent compared to Thursday’s close. Samsung C&T, the de facto holding company of the group and one of the focal points of the corruption scandal, shed 1.48 percent.Meanwhile, other listed Samsung affiliates saw gains. Samsung Engi

The finance ministry said Friday that it will put policy priority on restructuring state coffers and strengthening innovative momentum to pull off 3 percent economic growth going forward.Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon held a policy briefing before President Moon Jae-in in Sejong, an administrative city some 130 kilometers south of Seoul, along with heads of the Fair Trade Commission and the Financial Services Commission."The ministry will expand the South Korean economy's capacity to grow 3

South Korea's key consumer sentiment index fell slightly in August from a month earlier due mainly to heightened tensions between North Korea and the United States, a central bank survey showed Friday.The composite consumer sentiment index for August came to 109.9, down from 111.2 a month earlier, according to the survey by the Bank of Korea. A reading above 100 means optimists outnumber pessimists.Tensions have spiked on the Korean Peninsula as North Korea and the United States exchanged bellic

The government's anti-smoking campaign, funded partly by increased revenue from a cigarette price hike, has not been effective, officials said Friday.Monthly cigarette sales in January 2015, when the price of cigarettes was raised 80 percent from 2,500 won ($2.21) to 4,500 won, were 295 million packs. Currently, monthly sales are close to300 million packs, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Assembly Budget Office.Part of the revenue from the hike cigarette price was

The amount of crowdfunding in South Korea shot up nearly 29 percent this year, data showed Friday, showing the platform growing as an effective financing option for startups.According to the data by the Korea Securities Depository, 106 companies raised a combined 14.2 billion won ($12.6 million) from 5,826 investors between February and August, up 29.1 percent from the same period a year earlier.The number of the firms involved represented a whopping 51.4 percent increase from the 70 a year earl

Cheong Wa Dae announced on Thursday that President Moon Jae-in has named Park Seong-jin as the head of the new Ministry of SME and Startups. 　Park is a professor of engineering from Pohang University of Science and Technology and also serves as the CEO of Postech Holdings. 　　The new minster nominee is scheduled to attend a confirmation hearing led by a parliamentary committee before his appointment becomes official. Parliamentary approval is not required for Park’s appointment. 　The new Mi

Amid ambiguity hovering over future negotiations on the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement, Speaker of the Korean National Assembly Chung Sye-Kyun on Thursday defended the agreement as a win-win bedrock of Korea-US relations that must be negotiated wisely so as not to disrupt more than six decades of strong bilateral ties. During a general membership meeting with the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, or AmCham, at Lotte Hotel in Seoul, Chung stressed the importance of continuing the strong polit

The number of South Koreans expected to travel abroad is set to be twice that of foreigners visiting the country this year amid a sharp drop in the arrival of Chinese nationals, a state-run tourism agency said Thursday.The January-July tally showed that some 7.76 million foreigners came to South Korea, down 20.9 percent from the same period last year, according to the Korea Tourism Organization. The number of outbound South Koreans stood at over 15 million during the same months. The last time t

The governor of Poland's Lodzkie Region on Thursday called on South Korean electronics and automobile companies to invest in the province which is rich in skilled workers and is a major transportation hub in Europe. Gov. Witold Stepien is visiting Seoul along with business executives from nine Polish companies to promote the investment opportunities for the central region,  which includes the country's third-largest city of Lodz. "The Lodzkie Region is located at the very center of Pol

China Ocean Resources Co., a Hong Kong-based deep-sea fisheries company listed on the local stock market, said Thursday it filed a court petition to halt the delisting procedures being undertaken by Korea Exchange.China Ocean Resources, which listed its stocks in South Korea in 2009, is on the verge of being kicked out of the Korean bourse as it has been accused of posting false public disclosures and using opaque accounting practices. In a regulatory filing, China Ocean Resources said the petit

South Korea plans to sell a combined 6.3 trillion won (US$5.58 billion) in state bonds next month, the finance ministry said Thursday.The government will issue 1.25 trillion won in bonds with a maturity of three years and 1.55 trillion won in five-year bonds in September.It also plans to sell 1.4 trillion won in 10-year Treasurys and a combined 2.1 trillion won of bonds with a maturity of between 20 and 30 years. (Yonhap)

President Moon Jae-in’s vision of improving economic equity may suffer some setbacks due to a group of Christian lawmakers’ resistance to an incoming taxation bill on religious leaders.While the administration and the parliamentary cluster remained at odds over the issue, a public poll showed a majority of the public consider religious taxation necessary.Civic groups, led by the Korea Taxpayers’ Association, on Thursday held a press conference in front of the National Assembly,