In his inauguration speech Wednesday, new Financial Service Committee Chairman Choi Jong-ku addressed skyrocketing household debt, indicating he may push to adopt the debt-service ratio in household loans to toughen the lending process.“(The FSC) will advance the credit rating systems in financial firms by laying out ones based on the debt-service ratio,” Choi said in a speech at FSC headquarters in central Seoul.He described the nation’s household debt as “the biggest la

Monetary easing in South Korea has lasted for over a year, with the country’s central bank keeping a record low rate of 1.25 percent for 13 months as of July. Amid uncertainties surrounding the rate, Standard Chartered Bank Korea, the local unit of the London-based banking group, has been holding an event rewarding customers with benefits from checking account interest rates, the bank said Thursday. The move was partly to provide new customers who open checking accounts dubbed My Plus Acco

South Korean stocks ended up at a fresh record high Thursday amid expectations of solid corporate earnings results. The won fell against the US dollar.  The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 11.90 points, or 0.49 percent, to close at 2,441.84. Trade volume was moderate at 246.84 million shares worth 5.27 trillion won ($4.5 billion), with gainers outnumbering decliners 431 to 354. Institutions and foreigners bought a combined 102.45 billion won worth of stocks amid expect

Per-store operating profit at convenience stores in South Korea fell in 2015 as the market became more crowded, government data showed Thursday. An average per-store operating profit at franchised convenience stores stood at 18.6 million won ($16,523) in 2015, down 17 percent from a year ago, according to the data by the Statistics Korea.The number of convenience stores, however, rose 12.7 percent on year to 29,628 at the end of 2015, the data showed.  Convenience stores accounted for 16.4

South Korea's finance chief said Thursday that he will try to shift the country's economic paradigm to try to address chronic low growth and the deepening social divide.The country's central bank has lately raised its growth outlook for the gross domestic product to 2.8 percent for 2017, up 0.2 percentage point from its estimate released in April.The Bank of Korea said it expects the economy could grow 2.9 percent in 2018 on the back of global economic recovery and increased domestic spending. A

South Korean stocks turned lower Thursday morning as foreigners and institutions offloaded their holdings. The won traded down against the dollar.  The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index that started the day in positive territory surrendered 0.60 points, or 0.02 percent, to 2,429.34 as of 11:20 a.m.Foreigners and institutions sold a combined 40 billion won ($36 million) worth of stocks more than they bought. Individuals acquired a net 25 billion won that kept the main index from fa

Woori Bank, a major South Korean commercial lender, said Thursday its net profit for the first six months of this year jumped 46.4 percent on year, thanks to a solid gain in both interest and non-interest income.Net profit jumped to 1.09 trillion won ($971 million) in the January-June period on a consolidated basis, the lender said in a statement. It marked the biggest six-month profit since 2011, the lender said. For the second-quarter of this year, Woori Bank's net profit soared 50.1 percent o

South Korea's new agriculture minister has said the Seoul government will not make concessions in the farm sector in talks with the United States to amend a bilateral free trade agreement.In an interview with Yonhap News Agency arranged Tuesday, Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Kim Yung-rok also signaled his willingness to reduce imports of rice.The US has notified South Korea of plans to begin talks on revising the 5-year-old free trade deal, months after US President Donald said he

South Koreans took an average 5.5 local trips last year, spending 586,495 won ($522), travel-related data showed Thursday.Data from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said among 43.9 million people aged 15 and over, 39.29 million, or 89.5 percent, traveled domestically last year, up 1.6 percentage points from 2015.The travelers made an average 5.51 trips during the year, 9.4 days in total, according to the data. Women were more frequent travelers (5.82 times) than men (5.19 times), and

More unemployed young people are using their free time for personal activities rather than actively searching for jobs, data analysis showed Thursday, a trend that may be a sign that they have given up finding work.Statistics Korea took a supplementary survey last month on 1.47 million young people between 15 to 34 to ask how they spend their time. The survey results show that 35.4 percent were preparing to take tests that can lead to their employment. The same survey found that 5 percent of the

JEJU ISLAND, Jeju Province -- Amid growing tension in the corporate community over the government’s chaebol reform drive and planned minimum wage hike, the head of the nation’s top business lobbying organization Wednesday called for voluntary changes and efforts to create more jobs.Stressing the public role of businesses in the South Korean economy, Park Yong-maan, chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that the time is ripe for businesses to respond to growing

South Korea's top financial regulator said Wednesday he will be more active in reining in household debt, calling it the biggest risk facing the nation's economy. Choi Jong-ku, the newly appointed chairman of the Financial Services Commission, made the remarks in his inauguration speech earlier in the day. The former deputy finance minister, who served at the finance ministry for about three decades, is tasked with slowing down the nation's growing mountain of household debt and restructuring so

South Korea’s producer prices fell slightly for a fourth straight month in June, reflecting the recent drop in oil and raw material prices, the nation’s central bank data showed Wednesday.The producer price index as of the end of June stood at 101.79, down 0.4 percentage points from the previous month and 0.9 percentage points up from the end of last year, according to provisional data released by the Bank of Korea.The corresponding index, indicating the price fluctuation of products

Citibank Korea has been named the best foreign commercial bank in Korea in this year’s Country Awards for FinanceAsia, a Hong Kong-based financial magazine, the bank said Wednesday.The New York-based banking group’s unit in Korea bagged the award eight times over the last 10 years. FinanceAsia cited the bank’s “level of soundness” in capital adequacy, “robust growth” in the wealth management business and in card business, as well as “excellence in

Concerns have been raised that a set of policies being shaped by the Moon Jae-in administration will result in cutting deep into the competitiveness and efficiency of the Korean economy by aggravating its high-cost structure.Economists are beginning to ring alarms over this possibility, noting the country has already seen its major industries losing their competitive edge in the global market in the face of mounting challenges from foreign rivals while facing difficulties finding new growth engi