The number of South Koreans who moved to different parts of the country hit a five-year high last year as housing transactions increased amid rising home prices, data showed Tuesday. The number of people who changed their residences gained 8.9 percent on-year to 7.74 million in 2020, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. It marked the largest since 2015, when the number of such people came to 7.76 million. It also represented the fastest on-year increase since 1999. The populati

Sales of imported commercial vehicles in South Korea fell 6.9 percent in 2020 from a year earlier on lower demand amid the coronavirus pandemic, an industry association said Tuesday. The number of newly registered imported commercial vehicles fell to 4,482 units last year from 4,812 a year ago, the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association (KAIDA) said in a statement. KAIDA expects the COVID-19 pandemic to continue to weigh on consumer sentiment this year. Imported commercial ca

South Korea posted a trade surplus of more than $60 billion with its free trade agreement (FTA) partners last year amid the pandemic, data showed Tuesday. The country's exports to FTA partners fell 3.9 percent on-year to $383.1 billion and imports declined 1.3 percent to $323 billion, according to the data compiled by the Korea Customs Service. This resulted in a trade surplus of $60.3 billion last year, down 15.7 percent from a year earlier. In contrast, South Korea posted a trade deficit of

South Korea said Tuesday it will temporarily remove tariffs on imported egg products this week in an effort to ease a supply shortage caused by the outbreak of bird flu here. The Cabinet approved a revised regulation that will allow local firms to import a total of 50,000 tons of fresh eggs and seven other types of egg products without tariffs until June 30. The move will be effective starting Wednesday. Currently, duties of 8-30 percent are levied on imported egg products. The move came as t

Foreigners' building transactions in South Korea reached an all-time high in 2020, with deals soaring in the Seoul metropolitan area, data showed Tuesday. Foreigners' transactions of housing and commercial buildings in Asia's fourth-largest economy came to 21,048 last year, up 18.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Real Estate Board. It marked the first time that the number of foreign property transactions exceeded the 20,000 mark. It was also the largest annua

The South Korean economy's performance was the worst in over two decades last year, bearing the brunt of the pandemic, but it appears to have gotten back on a growth track on the back of a mild recovery in exports, according to the central bank Tuesday. The country's gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 1 percent in 2020 from a year earlier, according to advance data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The figure marks the worst on-year growth since 1998, when the nation's economy contracted 5.1 perc

Finance Ministry caught in a political crossfire

Despite the South Korean government’s relentless efforts to curb soaring apartment prices, there seems to be no sign of demand letting up in Seoul and its surrounding cities, according to the Korea Appraisal Board on Monday. The state-run property appraisal agency’s recent report showed the home-buying sentiment stood at 117.2, a record high since the relevant data started compilation in July 2012. The index, based on a survey of the organization’s member realtors and analysi

Kakao Bank, South Korea’s leading Internet-only bank, said on Monday that it is hiring more than 100 employees in its push to ramp up digital innovation.  The lender said it plans to hire experienced talent in eight areas -- financial IT development, risk management, business development, service plan, compliance, audit, and customer services -- in the first half of the year. After the latest talent hunting, the company’s headcount, which currently stands at 937, will exceed 1

The number of counterfeit South Korean banknotes fell to a record low in 2020, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said Monday, as the coronavirus pandemic caused a decline in cash usage. Last year, the number of fake banknotes found in South Korea came to 272, down 6.8 percent from a year earlier and marking the lowest since the BOK began releasing such data in 1998. The decline was mainly due to a "drop in in-person cash usage as COVID-19 spreads," the BOK said. By denomination, 5,000-won cou

South Korean exports of red pepper paste jumped more than 35 percent in 2020 from a year earlier thanks to the global popularity of Korean pop culture, known as the Korean Wave, data showed Monday. Overseas shipments of red pepper paste, called "gochujang" in Korean, came to $50.93 million last year, up 35.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the data by the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. South Korean exports had been on the rise since 2016, when the figure stood

Kim Dong-hwan, the founder of a market and economic YouTube show “Three Pros” had never imagined that his channel would have 1 million subscribers, a tenfold increase, just within a year. “Three Pros: With Economic God” provides daily market updates and analysis of industries and economy and is hosted by three “pros” in the field: Kim, Lee Jin-woo and Jung Young-jin. The channel has recorded more than 200 million views so far and attracts as many as 60,000

South Korea's two excavator makers are expected to see a steady rise in their shipments to China this year thanks to a boom in the neighbor's construction market, according to industry watchers Sunday. "The Chinese government's policy to boost the economy is forecast to expand the volume of the civil engineering and construction market in 2021, which has an impact on the sales of excavators," said Kim Hong-gyun, an analyst at DB Financial Investment, in his recent report. Exports of

South Korea said Friday it has officially set its tariff on imported rice exceeding a quota at 513 percent, ending its yearslong tariffication process for the nation's key staple grain. Under the measure, South Korea will slap a 513 percent tariff on imported rice for quantities outside a designated quota, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Quantities below the quota of 408,700 tons will be imposed with a tariff of 5 percent. The measure is aimed at providing on

South Korea's trade ministry said Friday that the World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled in favor of Seoul in its lawsuit against the United States centering on high tariffs imposed on local steel and power transformer products. Washington has been levying high tariffs on some South Korean products by applying the "adverse facts available" (AFA) provision since May 2016, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The provision allows extremely high anti-dumping and co