Korea ranks 26th of 33 OECD members in Q3 employment

Regulator reviews punitive measures against shippers' alleged price fixingSouth Korea's antitrust regulator was holding a deliberation session Wednesday to decide punitive actions against HMM Co. and 22 other shippers over their suspected price fixing of freight rates. Since 2018, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has been looking into allegations that the country's top shipper HMM and 22 domestic and foreign shipping lines had colluded to fix higher freight rates for Southeast Asian sea routes.

South Korea added the most jobs in seven years in 2021 as the job market recovered to pre-pandemic levels due to the base effect and the economic recovery, data showed Wednesday. The number of employed people reached 27.27 million last year, 369,000 more than a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. It marked the largest number since 2014, when the nation reported an on-year increase of 598,000 jobs. Last year's number was higher than the government's earlier estimat

SEJONG -- South Korea’s brisk export performance, which started in the fourth quarter of 2020 as a rebound or recovery, has continued during the first 10 days of 2022, state customs data showed Tuesday. According to the Korea Customs Service, the nation’s exports reached $13.9 billion during the period of Jan. 1-10, up 24.4 percent compared to $11.2 billion over the same period of 2021. By main item, outbound shipments of home appliances -- such as TVs, refrigerators, washing machi

The number of South Korean companies that returned home from their offshore operations and their investment at home hit an all-time high last year, the industry ministry said Tuesday. A total of 26 firms relocated their factories from overseas in 2021, compared with 24 the previous year, and their combined investment grew 22 percent on-year to 681.5 billon won ($570.63 million), according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The 2021 figures marked the largest since the ministry bega

Insurance firms in South Korea saw their risk-based capital ratio fall in the third quarter of last year amid rising market interest rates, data showed Tuesday. The risk-based capital (RBC) ratio of local insurance firms stood at 254.5 percent as of end-September, down 6.4 percentage points from three months earlier, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). The fall came as a rise in market interest rates and stock market declines caused losses from their asset holdi

As the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership takes effect in February, the Korea Customs Service has come up with a set of measures to help exporters and importers make use of the world’s largest trade agreement among 15 Asia-Pacific nations. Only exporters who have been certified by the KCS for having the ability to manage and prove their products’ country of origin can get certificates of origin under the RCEP. Therefore, the KCS has begun accepting applications for certific

KCS steps up crackdown on narcotics, illegal currency exchange

Bond issuance in South Korea fell 1.8 percent in 2021 from a year earlier due to decreased debt sales by the government, data showed Tuesday. The value of bonds sold in Asia's fourth-largest economy came to 829 trillion won ($693 billion) last year, down 15.3 trillion won from 2020, according to the data from the Korea Financial Investment Association. State-bond issuance shrank 4 percent on-year to 228.4 trillion won, while sales of financial bonds surged 23 percent to 252.2 trillion won. Cor

South Korea logged a current account surplus for the 19th straight month in November, but the surplus was much smaller than a year earlier due to increased imports driven by high energy and raw material prices, central bank data showed Tuesday. The current account surplus amounted to $7.16 billion in November, down from a surplus of $9.18 billion tallied a year earlier, according to the preliminary data by the Bank of Korea (BOK). The reading marked the 19th straight month that the current ac

  Korean instant noodle exports in the first 11 months of last year set a new record amid the prolonged pandemic and the popularity of “chapaguri,” a mix of two different instant noodle products featured in the Oscar-winning film “Parasite.” Exports of ramen, known locally as “ramyeon,” in January-November 2021 hit $607.9 million, up 10.6 percent from the same period a year prior. The 2020 total, which was then the highest ever annual figure, was $603.6

South Korea will begin its annual meeting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this week on the country's overall economic situation as well as the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the finance ministry said Monday. An IMF team, led by Martin Kaufman, Korea missions chief at the Washington-based organization, will hold a video conference with the Ministry of Economy and Finance on Tuesday before holding similar virtual meetings with officials of the central bank, and other financial and

Next to Canada, Korea ranks 18th of 38 members in 2020

Sales of short-term corporate bonds in South Korea jumped more than 20 percent in 2021 from a year earlier amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Monday. Local companies issued 1,243.7 trillion won ($1.04 trillion) worth of short-term bonds, up 20.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Securities Depository (KSD). Short-term bonds refer to those that come due within one year, with the minimum amount of 100 million won or more per issue. Sales of general short-

Foreign direct investment (FDI) pledges made to South Korea surged 42.3 percent in 2021 from a year earlier to reach an all-time high, data showed Monday. Foreigners pledged to invest $29.51 billion in South Korea in 2021, compared with $20.7 billion a year earlier, according to the data by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The 2021 figure hit an all-time high, beating the previous record of $26.9 billion logged in 2018, it added. The amount of investment that actually arrived in So