SEJONG -- South Korea will lower tariff rates on a total of 90 products next year to strengthen competitiveness of small businesses and stabilize prices of key materials, the finance ministry said Tuesday. The number is higher than the 83 items subject to temporary tariff cuts under a tariff quota system this year, according to the ministry. Those products include crude oil, liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, sugar, corn, chicken eggs and materials needed to produce batteries, the

South Korea's consumer sentiment index dropped for the first time in four months in December due to concerns over the resurgence of the coronavirus, central bank data showed Tuesday. The composite consumer sentiment index (CCSI) came to 103.9 in December, down 3.7 points from the previous month, according to the data from the Bank of Korea. This marked the first decline since August when the index fell to 102.5 from the previous month's 103.2. A reading above 100 means optimists outnumber pe

South Korea plans to sell 13 trillion won ($11 billion) in government bonds in January, the finance ministry said Monday. The ministry will issue 900 billion won in Treasurys with a two-year maturity, 2.5 trillion won with a maturity of three years, 2.5 trillion won in five-year government bonds and 2.6 trillion won with a maturity of 10 years, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Sales of longer-dated bonds will include 3.3 trillion won in 30-year Treasury notes and 400 billion w

Despite lingering omicron woes, experts say Korea’s economy to grow 3% on average on strong chip, IT exports

The chip, renewable energy and entertainment industries are set to grow next year, auditing firm Samjong KPMG said Monday in its annual industry forecast report for 24 industries. The supply of system chips will improve as production expands while sales of memory chips next year will not be as strong as this year, because of oversupply, the report said, noting that the South Korean government should work with local chipmakers like Samsung Electronics to localize parts for chip independence. Sa

South Korea's exports to the so-called New Southern and Northern regions are likely to touch all-time highs in 2021 on Seoul's efforts to deepen economic ties with those regions, the trade ministry said Monday. Seoul's overseas shipments to the New Southern Region -- the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and India -- reached $111.9 billion in the first 11 months of this year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. In light of that, exports to the region are proje

The number of franchise outlets in South Korea rose more than 9 percent in 2020 despite the coronavirus pandemic, but their sales dropped for the first time since 2013, data showed Monday. Franchise stores numbered 235,709 as of end-December last year, up 9.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. Food and beverage franchise outlets expanded at double-digit numbers as demand for home delivery services grew sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, it said.

SEJONG -- The gross regional domestic product (GRDP) for provinces and cities in South Korea inched up in 2020 from a year earlier amid restrictions on business operations caused by the pandemic, data showed Monday. According to the data provided by Statistics Korea, the GRDP came to 1,936 trillion won ($1.63 trillion) in 2020, up 0.4 percent or 9 trillion won from a year earlier. The greater Seoul area -- which covers Gyeonggi Province that surrounds the capital Seoul, and the western port ci

South Korea will push to submit an official application to join a mega Asia-Pacific free trade agreement in April next year by speeding up the process of collecting public opinions and building social consensus, the country's top economic policymaker said Monday. The government earlier said that it had begun the process to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) involving 11 nations as part of efforts to diversify its export portfolio. Finance Mi

The cost of living was cited as the most important economic issue of 2022 by Seoul citizens, a survey showed Monday. According to the survey on 1,200 households in the capital by the Seoul Institute, 19.2 percent of the respondents said the cost of living is the top economic issue next year. Another 17.3 percent cited youth unemployment and job creation followed by mortgage loans and increasing household debts at 9.8 percent, the result of the 2022 presidential election at 8.3 percent, incom

Shinhan Financial Group, one of the four banking giants in the country, has named a former IBM managing director as its digital chief officer to accelerate a push to expand its digital services. Kim Myoung-hee, who spent the last 23 years developing digital operations at IBM before joining SK telecom to oversee digital efforts at the country’s largest mobile carrier, is considered one of the leading women experts on digital transformation. Kim was the first senior women chief to lead the

South Korea's central bank said Thursday it will end a special program to buy corporate bonds, including low-rated debts, at the end of this month as planned as the financial market has stabilized. The Bank of Korea (BOK) and the state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) launched a 10 trillion-won ($8.4 billion) program in July last year to purchase corporate bonds and commercial paper, a move aimed at easing a corporate funding squeeze. The program has been extended twice and is set to end on Dec

South Korean firms' earnings plunged to a six-year low in 2020 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, government data showed Thursday. The combined pretax net profit of 13,429 companies came to 97.7 trillion won ($82 billion) in 2020, down 3.9 percent from the prior year and marking the third straight year of decline, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. It was the lowest level since the 91.4 trillion won recorded in 2014 and represented the first time for their total bottom l

South Korea's financial system has remained stable, but a rise in housing prices and high household debt serve as major potential risks to financial stability, a central bank report showed Thursday. In a biannual report on financial stability, the Bank of Korea (BOK) called for policy efforts to stabilize the housing market and curb the growth of household debt, raising the need to ease the high level of financial imbalances. "Since the first half of this year, the country's financial sy

South Korea's finance ministry said Wednesday it will put the top priority on stabilizing consumer inflation next year as the country faces a buildup in price pressure amid rising prices of raw materials and farm products and the economic recovery. The government plans to beef up the monitoring of the supply of key farm produce closely linked to people's livelihoods and freeze public utility bills in the first quarter of next year. The Ministry of Economy and Finance picked measures to stabili