The head of South Korea's antitrust watchdog said Monday that he will strengthen the enforcement of fair trade laws by expanding civil actions against rule-breaking companies."I will introduce a system that will allow multiple economic players to enforce trade rules at the same time," Fair Trade Commission Chairman Kim Sang-jo said in a conference held in Seoul. "I will make efforts to get trade law violations be resolved through civil suits." Under the current Fair Trade Act

The number of foreign cruise tourists visiting South Korea has declined sharply in recent months, government data showed Monday, amid a diplomatic row with China over the deployment of a US anti-missile system.China has been banning package tours to South Korea since March as part of its economic retaliation against South Korea over the THAAD deployment, which Beijing considers a security threat.Chinese accounted for 91 percent of about 1.95 million foreign tourists who came to South Korea

Transactions among South Korean financial firms rose 3.7 percent in 2016 from a year earlier, the central bank said, a move that could pose a potential problem in the financial market in the event of a surge in non-performing loans.Transactions among banks and non-banking lenders came to 1,970 trillion won ($1.7 trillion) at the end of last year, up 69.9 trillion won from 2015, the Bank of Korea said in a recent report.The amount of transactions among the financial firms has been on a rise in re

Rising home prices and loan interest rates have made houses the least affordable in over four years, the latest data showed Monday.According to the Korea Housing-Finance, the Korea-housing affordability index rose to 58.9 in the first three months of the year, up 0.4 percentage point from the previous quarter. This is the highest since the fourth quarter of 2012, when the index stood at 59.9. K-HAI reflects the burden of loan repayment for homebuyers with median income who purchase average-price

South Korean stocks opened nearly flat Monday as investors took a wait-and-see approach on local firms' second-quarter earnings reports set to be released throughout this month.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 1.42 points, or 0.06 percent, to 2,318,29 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Carmakers were among major losers, with Hyundai Motor falling 1.32 percent and its sister Kia Motors backtracking 1.21 percent. Top auto parts maker Hyundai Mobis shed 1.43 percent.In contrast

Offshore investors continued to pour money into South Korean stock markets last month, remaining net buyers of local stocks for a seventh consecutive month, official data showed Monday. Foreign investors boosted their holdings of local stocks by a net 1.75 trillion won ($1.51 billion) in June to 597.7 trillion won, according to the data by the Financial Supervisory Service.  For the first six months of this year, offshore investors bought a net 10.8 trillion won worth of shares issued by So

South Korea’s 10 largest business groups in market capitalization account for more than half of the total value of listings on the country’s main bourse, data showed Sunday.The 10 business groups had 907.2 trillion won ($785.8 billion) in market capitalization, accounting for 51.3 percent of the total 1,767 trillion won as of Thursday, showed data by the Korea Exchange.Among the so-called chaebol, Samsung Group with the market bellwether and its electronics arm Samsung Electronics to

Korea's state-run pension fund has increased its holdings in three spinoff companies of Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., data provided by a local market research showed Sunday.   According to FnGuide Inc., the National Pension Service held a stake of more than 5 percent in 277 companies as of late last week.   Of companies that the pension fund has large stakes in, 17 were added in the second quarter of this year, with an emphasis placed on Hyundai Heavy affiliates.   

South Korea's financial regulator said Sunday it is considering adopting a system to supervise banks when they raise service charges.    The move is part of President Moon Jae-in's pledges to help relieve the financial burden of consumers and strengthen transparency at banks when they raise fees and charges.   In a report made to the ruling Minjoo Party, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said banks, insurers and card companies have charged a combined 27.7 trillion won (

Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee's ranking among the world's super rich rose to 45th place last week, thanks to the surge in the stock value at the conglomerate's electronic arm, a US-based financial news source said Sunday.   According to Bloomberg, Lee, who has been hospitalized since May 2014 after he suffered a heart attack, is valued to be worth $18.5 billion. The total represents an increase of $4.4 billion this year alone, the information source said.    His ranking

South Korean companies’ high hopes were struck down following President Moon Jae-in’s Thursday meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, as the two countries failed to strike an accord to cease China’s unofficial economic retaliation against South Korean companies regarding the controversial deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense.  　Korea’s relationship with China has hit its lowest point in years due to political and economic tension over the install

South Korea’s rapidly aging population could become a hurdle to economic growth in the near future, according to economists at the Bank of Korea.According to central bank’s data, the number of South Koreans over 65 accounted for 12.8 percent of the population in 2015 and that figure is projected to grow to 28.7 percent by 2035 and 42.5 percent by 2065.As the economically active population falls, the growth rate could reach zero percent after 2035, Ahn Byung-kwun, a BOK economist, sai

Japanese bank Nomura Holdings joined several global investment banks on Friday in raising South Korea's economic growth forecast for this year. Kwon Young-sun, a chief economist at Nomura, upgraded South Korea's economic growth rate for this year to 2.7 percent from its previous forecast of 2.4 percent, citing improving exports and construction investment. However, South Korea's economy is likely to show signs of mild growth in the second half of this year.  Kwon noted that South Korea's ec

South Korea's central bank is expected to hold its key rates steady this month as it could move to "normalize" interest in early 2018, Moody's Analytics said Friday.The Bank of Korea is set to hold its rate-review session next Thursday to decide whether to keep or adjust the all-time low rate of 1.25 percent. "The central bank is in no hurry to raise rates with core inflation only gradually creeping higher amid expectations of improving domestic demand," Moody's Analytics sai