South Korea said Monday it plans to suspend transactions with Russia's central bank, joining the global move to impose additional sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. The government said it will announce details after consulting with related government agencies. The US has banned transactions with Russia's central bank, the finance ministry and sovereign wealth funds as part of fresh sanctions against Moscow. The European Union also announced similar sanctions. South Korea has

The South Korean economy is on a recovery track, but external economic uncertainty has markedly increased as the Russian invasion of Ukraine has jacked up prices of oil and raw materials, a state-run think tank said Monday. Asia's fourth-largest economy is maintaining its moderate recovery on the back of solid manufacturing output, with the latest upsurge in COVID-19 cases having limited impacts on in-person services, the Korea Development Institute (KDI) said in a monthly economic assessment re

South Korean retail investors have been on a buying spree of Russia-related exchange-traded funds amid growing tensions between Russia and Ukraine, data showed Sunday. Analysts say that retail investors are hoping for a rebound in Russian stocks once the situation surrounding the Russia-Ukraine war calms down, but warned that the current volatility could be costly for them. Retail investors bought over a net 70 billion won ($57.4 million) worth of Russia-related ETFs sold both locally and ov

South Korea has decided to release 4.42 million barrels of strategic crude reserves to help bring down soaring energy prices and prevent a possible supply shortage amid tensions surrounding Ukraine, the industry ministry said Saturday. Earlier this week, 31 member nations of the International Energy Agency  agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves, as concerns have risen over a possible shortfall in global energy supplies and a further spike in prices due t

South Korea will extend fuel tax cuts by three months as the country is striving to ease the burden on consumers and a build-up of inflationary pressure, the country's top economic policymaker said Friday. On Nov. 12, the government lowered fuel taxes by a record 20 percent in a bid to tame inflationary pressure. The tax reduction was set to expire at the end of April. The government decided to keep the fuel tax cuts in place for three more months until end-July amid concerns that the war in U

South Korea's consumer prices grew more than 3 percent for the fifth straight month in February as energy costs spiked amid the Ukraine crisis, data showed Friday. The consumer prices rose 3.7 percent on-year last month, compared with a 3.6 percent on-year gain in January, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. The country's consumer inflation has grown more than 3 percent since October last year. Inflation growth stayed above 2 percent -- the central bank's inflation target over

SEJONG -- Vice Finance Minister Lee Eog-weon said Thursday the Ukraine-Russia conflict could have a “long-term” negative effect on the South Korean economy, and that the extent of coming impacts is unpredictable at the current stage. During a task force meeting in Seoul, Lee said the uncertainty from the geopolitical risk has expanded in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and as the international community continues to pile on sanctions against Russia. “It has gradua

The number of regulatory disclosure rule violations by firms in South Korea more than halved in 2021 from a year earlier amid stepped-up efforts to protect investors from misleading or false information, data showed Thursday. According to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service, there were 87 cases of regulatory filing rule violations last year, which involved a total of 73 listed and unlisted firms. The figure was sharply down from 193 violations a year earlier and marked the lowest sin

Online shopping in South Korea rose 11.5 percent in January from a year earlier, with the proportion of transactions via mobile devices reaching a record high, amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Thursday. The value of online shopping transactions stood at 16.54 trillion won ($13.74 billion) in January, compared with 14.84 trillion won recorded a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea. But the figure marked a 7.1 percent fall from the previous month when the figu

South Korean banks' mortgage rates hit the highest level in about 10 years in January amid rising borrowing costs, central bank data showed Thursday. Banks' mortgage loan rate averaged 3.85 percent per year in January, 0.22 percentage point higher from a month earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). It also marked the eighth consecutive month of on-month increase and the highest since April 2013. Mortgage rates have been on the rise as the BOK has hiked its policy rate in re

Nearly seven in 10 South Koreans saw their income fall in the wake of COVID-19, a survey showed Thursday. In the online survey of 2,016 people aged 18 or above by the Korea Institute of Public Administration from Nov. 15-22, 68 percent said their average monthly income was lower in 2021 than in 2019 before the pandemic struck. Only 30 percent said their income rose, while the remaining 2 percent said it remains unchanged. Those who earned less lost 1.25 million won ($1,038) per month on average,

Mobile phones, cars and other consumer goods are not subject to the United States' sweeping restrictions on exports to Russia, South Korea's trade ministry said Thursday. Last week, the US government announced the Foreign Direct Product Rule (FDPR) for "all of Russia" as part of its export controls to block Russia's access to global high-tech products and other major items, such as semiconductors, over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The measure calls on companies to receive a license

South Korea's central bank maintained its earlier 2021 economic growth estimate Thursday but slightly increased its estimate for the fourth quarter, citing larger-than-expected exports. South Korea's economy grew 4 percent in 2021 after expanding 1.2 percent in the October-December period, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The 2021 growth rate remained unchanged from the BOK's earlier estimate on Jan. 25, but the fourth quarter figure was slightly higher than a projec

Exports to Russia obliged to undergo approval from US

Growth also seen in shipments to Ukraine, Russia