Loans extended by insurance companies in South Korea rose 8 percent on-year in the second quarter, led by gains in home-backed lending and corporate loans, the financial watchdog said Tuesday. Insurers' outstanding loans totaled 260.3 trillion won ($225 billion) as of end-June, compared with 240.9 trillion won the previous year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). Their loans to households rose 6.5 trillion won on-year to 126.6 trillion won as of end-June as the extension of

South Korea's trade ministry said Monday it seeks to launch negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) with Egypt, which would mark the first of its kind with an African nation. Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo plans to meet his Egyptian counterpart Nevin Gamea virtually later in the day to discuss ways to bolster bilateral economic ties, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. "The potential FTA will help South Korean firms penetrate deeper into the Egyptian market, further

South Korea's trade ministry said Monday it aims to resume talks for a new free trade agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to forge deeper economic ties with the Middle East after a hiatus of more than 10 years. Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo plans to meet his UAE counterpart Thani Al Zeyoudi virtually later in the day and propose resuming talks for the South Korea-GCC FTA, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Asia's No. 4 economy and the GCC agreed to launch negot

Chinese subsidiaries of South Korean firms saw their sales sink nearly 7 percent in 2020 from four years earlier due to their dropping market share in the world's second-largest economy, data showed Monday. Combined Chinese sales of 30 out of South Korea's top 100 companies came to 117.1 trillion won ($101 billion) last year, down 6.9 percent from 2016, according to the data from the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), the lobby for the country's family-controlled conglomerates known as chae

Blockchain is not a technological concept anymore. It’s starting to apply to real life and becoming a mainstream, irreversible trend, Dunamu CEO Lee Sir-goo said during the Upbit Developers Conference last week. “When the Internet first emerged, exponential growth began after services that people can use in real life and as for artificial intelligence, after years of research, it only started to receive attention when it was translated into real services,” Lee noted. “

South Korea, one of the world‘s fastest aging societies, is facing a steep rise in its public pension payment, data showed Sunday.  Nearly 60 trillion won ($53.76 billion) will be taken out from the nation’s four public pension programs, including the national pension, government employees pension, military personnel pension, and private school teachers pension, in 2022, up 6.2 percent from this year’s 55.8 trillion won, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Econo

Consumer inflation rose 2.6 percent last month, staying above 2 percent for the fifth month in a row, on the back of higher agricultural product and international crude oil prices, Statistics Korea reported Thursday. It is the first time since 2017 that consumer inflation has remained above 2 percent for five consecutive months. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and oil prices, rose 1.3 percent last month from a year earlier. Given that the government plans to dole out 11 trillio

South Korea is now more likely to meet its annual growth goal of 4 percent, with the economy on faster-than-expected track to recovery, despite woes stemming from the fourth and worst wave of the virus, a central bank official said Thursday. The anticipation comes as the Bank of Korea announced on-quarter growth of 0.8 percent for the economy in the April-June period. The figure was 0.1 percentage point higher than expected, preliminary data from the BOK showed. “With the higher-then-e

Koh Seung-beom, the new chairman of the policymaking Financial Services Commission, vowed Thursday to bolster cooperation with the market watchdog Financial Supervisory Service in a gesture to ease the long-standing power struggle between the two agencies. “I’ve stressed that the FSC and FSS should move in unison. As the FSC’s new head, I will ramp up efforts to strengthen communication with the FSS’ chairman in terms of promoting financial policies,” Koh told repo

South Korea's consumer prices rose more than 2 percent for the fifth straight month in August due to high prices of farm and oil products, data showed Thursday, indicating a continued build-up of inflationary pressure amid an economic recovery. The consumer prices rose 2.6 percent in August from a year earlier, the same growth as the previous month, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. Compared with a month earlier, consumer inflation rose 0.6 percent last month, accelerating fr

South Korea's economy grew slightly faster than expected in the second quarter, thanks to a robust recovery of exports and service sectors, central bank data showed Thursday. The nation's economy grew 0.8 percent in the April-June period from three months earlier, 0.1 percentage point higher than earlier expected, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The country's annualized growth in the April-June period was also revised up to 6 percent, up 0.1 percentage point. Sout

The combined net profit of asset management firms in South Korea rose 3.2 percent in the second quarter from three months earlier on a modest rise in commission fees, data showed Thursday. Their net income amounted to 609.4 billion won ($526 million) in the April-June period, compared with 590.4 billion won in the first quarter, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). Compared with a year earlier, their net profit surged 91.6 percent, it said. The solid earnings were mainly due

With people preferring delivery services to abide by social distancing rules during the COVID-19 pandemic, South Korea saw a record number of delivery workers last year, data showed Wednesday. The total number of delivery workers here gained 11.8 percent on-year to a record 390,000 as of end-December, Statistics Korea data showed. Those who are classified as delivery workers here are letter carriers, couriers, those who work for food delivery services, newspaper deliverers and more. The nu

Corporate loan growth in South Korea slightly picked up in the second quarter from three months earlier, central bank data showed Wednesday, mainly due to a modest gain in loans for the service sector. The outstanding loans extended to local companies came to 1,478.5 trillion won ($1.27 trillion) as of end-June, up 42.7 trillion won from three months earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). By industrial sector, loans to manufacturing firms rose 4.9 trillion won on-quarter

South Korea's real estate trust market expanded nearly 19 percent in the first half of the year from a year earlier amid a brisk property market, data showed Wednesday. Fourteen local real estate trust companies registered combined sales of 779.9 billion won ($673 million) in the January-June period, up 18.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Financial Investment Association. Their combined net profit soared 19.7 percent on-year to 325.7 billion won, with operati