South Korea on Tuesday held the sixth round of free trade talks with a group of South American countries, after around a year of hiatus amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The two parties kicked off the four-day meeting virtually to set details on the pending trade agreement, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy. The previous meeting was held in Uruguay in February 2020. South Korea launched its first talks with the four member states of the South American trade block Mercosur -- B

The South Korean economy is forecast to grow 3.8 percent this year on the back of strong export growth and expansionary macroeconomic policy, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Monday, ramping up its previous projection of 3.3 percent. “Strong overseas demand for IT products, which account for about a fifth of total exports and automobiles is lifting exports. A gradual easing of distancing measures and government relief packages have helped vulnerable household

South Korea’s central bank should raise its benchmark interest rate in the second half of the year, given the faster-than-expected pace of the economic recovery, a think tank here said. “If the Bank of Korea decides to carry out a belated rate hike, then the economy could see a bigger shock stemming from a possible economic slowdown or a capital market crunch,” Park Sung-wook, a researcher at the Korea Institute of Finance, said in a report released Sunday. “Our econo

The number of employees at local businesses grew on-year by 2.1 percent in April on the back of an economic recovery, the labor ministry said Monday. As of the last business day of April, there were 18.6 million people employed by companies, up 379,000 from the same month last year, the Ministry of Employment and Labor said in a monthly report. The increase is the largest in 21 months, after 396,000 in July 2019. The coronavirus pandemic caused negative growth in employee numbers starting in

South Korea plans to invest 3.6 trillion won ($3.2 billion) this year to promote the convergence of different industries and foster new growth engines, the industry ministry said Monday. The budget, which marks a 3.7 percent rise from 3.46 trillion won allocated in 2020, will be spent on 163 projects, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The projects will center on helping the country's vision to go carbon neutral by 2050 and speed up the development of contact-free econom

South Korea is likely to collect larger-than-expected tax revenue this year, potentially securing ammunition to finance another extra budget that could be under review to help underpin an economic recovery. The country may be able to collect more than 300 trillion won ($269 billion) in tax revenue this year, up around 17 trillion won from the government's earlier forecast of 282.7 trillion won, according to government and parliamentary officials. This, if realized, would also mark an increase

South Korea's industrial output declined the most in 11 months in April as production in the chipmaking industry slumped due largely to a higher base effect, data showed Monday. But the country's service output and retail sales extended their gains last month as warm weather and eased social distancing rules spurred consumer spending. The industrial output decreased 1.1 percent in April from the previous month, a turnaround from a 0.9 percent on-month increase in March, according to the data c

South Koreans' overseas card spending dropped 28.8 percent on-year in the first quarter, due to a sharp decline in the number of outbound travelers amid the COVID-19 pandemic, central bank data showed Sunday. The amount of money spent overseas by South Koreans with cards, including credit and debit cards, totaled $2.56 billion in the January-March period, compared with $3.59 billion for the same period last year, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). Compared with three months ea

Korea sees sovereign debt stay above 800 trillion won

South Korea plans to take into account tax revenue situations and demand for increasing public finances before it decides on whether to draw up another extra budget in the latter half of 2021, a senior government official said Friday. First Vice Finance Minister Lee Eog-weon also said the government will focus its economic policy on underpinning an accelerating economic recovery in the second half. Talk of another extra budget emerged from the ruling party after President Moon Jae-in said Thur

The Korea Development Institute, a state-funded think tank, has appointed the architect behind President Moon Jae-in’s income-led growth policy as its new head. Hong Jang-pyo was the chief secretary for economic affairs and led the presidential committee on income-led growth in 2018. He was said to have orchestrated policy drafts that were later blamed by Moon’s critics for failing to narrow economic disparities to which they were intended for. Hong’s three-year term will st

South Korean banks' lending rates edged down in April amid a slight decline in deposit rates, central bank data showed Friday. The average interest rate charged on new bank loans came to 2.74 percent in April, down 0.03 percentage point from the previous month, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The BOK cut the key interest rate to a record low of 0.5 percent in May last year after delivering an emergency rate cut of half a percentage point in March to cushion the impa

South Korea plans to extend a cut in the consumption tax on passenger cars by another six months in a bid to boost domestic demand hit by the pandemic, the finance minister said Friday. A 30 percent cut in the consumption tax on the purchase of passenger cars is supposed to expire at the end of June, but the country will extend it until the end of this year, according to Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki. In July 2018, the government slashed the auto consumption tax to 3.5 percent from 5 percent an

BOK takes cautious, yet more hawkish stance toward rate hike by the end of the year

On back of Oscar-winning film ‘Parasite,’ shipment of instant noodles surges 30%