South Korea's market for processed meat products, such as sausages, has been growing steadily in recent years amid rising demand from single-member households, data showed Tuesday. The country's processed meat market was estimated at 5.6 trillion won ($5 billion) in 2018, up 2.4 percent from the previous year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs. The market has grown an average of 8.9 percent since 2015. The ministry attributed the growth to rising demand for read

SEJONG -- South Korea collected 36.6 trillion won ($32.7 billion) in taxes in September, up 3.6 trillion won from a year earlier, the finance ministry said Tuesday. Income tax revenue amounted to 6.7 trillion won in September, up 4.2 trillion won from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Dues collected from companies, on the other hand, reached 8.3 trillion won in the month, down 1.2 trillion won from a year earlier due to the lackluster earnings of local firms.

Democrat president-elect may partly adopt protectionist actions against China, amid COVID-19

Weaker dollar trend may seem like a bargain for Korean economy, but there is more than meets the eye, experts say

  South Korea has fared well among the world’s major economies, with a related economic indicator showing a mid-level performance, the Korea Center for International Finance said Monday.  According to the Tracking Indices for the Global Economic Recovery, an index designed to measure global economic recovery by the think tank Brookings Institution and Financial Times, Asia’s fourth-largest economy posted minus 0.76. The figure marked 9th place among 23 leading economies,

South Korea is considering tightening rules on overdrafts as a sharp rise in such lending adds to concerns over the country's already-high household debt, the finance minister said Monday. As the financial regulator toughened rules on mortgage lending to curb rising housing prices, people heavily took out overdrafts in recent months to meet demand for property-related costs and invest in stocks amid low interest rates. At a parliamentary session, Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said the governmen

South Korea's won currency surged to a 22-month high against the US dollar on Monday, after the election of Joe Biden as the next US president. The won was quoted at 1,113.9 won per US dollar at Monday's closing, up 6.5 won from the previous session, touching its strongest level since Jan. 31, 2019. It was the first time in some 22 months that the currency breached the key support level of 1,120 won to the greenback. Analysts said the won is expected to further strengthen for the time bein

South Korean companies need to diversify their Southeast Asian exports and investments into Malaysia in a departure from their focus on Vietnam, a report said Monday. "Malaysia has been drawing attention as a promising destination for exports and investment as well as a supply source as the United States has opened the possibility of imposing tariffs on Vietnamese goods through a foreign exchange investigation," said the report from the Korea International Trade Association (KITA).&nb

Index improves for other age brackets in 2nd half

The COVID-19 pandemic changes how those living alone spend time and manage finances

The South Korean economy is on a recovery path, aided by a mild improvement in the manufacturing sector, but it faces growing downside risks amid a global resurgence in new coronavirus cases, a state-run think tank said Sunday. The country's service industry has slackened as people refrained from making in-person contact and going outside, while the manufacturing sector has undergone a limited recovery on improving demand at home and abroad, according to a monthly economic assessment report by

Global investment banking giants, including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Citi have raised their 2020 average growth forecasts for South Korea’s economy, a report compiled by the Korea Center for International Finance showed Friday. The report came as the export-driven economy’s outbound shipments have been riding on a path to solid recovery. Korea’s current account surplus hit a two-year high in September as exports rebounded for the first time in seven months amid the global

South Korea and Uzbekistan agreed Friday to announce the launch of trade talks at an opportune time in an effort to expand bilateral trade, the government said. The agreement was made between South Korean Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Sung Yun-mo and Sardor Umurzakov, Uzbekistan's deputy prime minister for investment and foreign economic relations, during a videoconference of a bilateral trade and economic committee, the trade ministry said. The meeting of the committee, the official

South Korean manufacturers' domestic supply declined for the second straight quarter in the third quarter, as production remained sluggish amid the new coronavirus outbreak, data showed Friday. The manufacturing domestic supply index stood at 102.7 in the July-September period, down 0.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The third-quarter tally compared with a 4.5 percent on-year drop in the second quarter, when the index fell at the sharpest pace since t

Major foreign investment banks (IBs) have upgraded their forecasts for South Korea's economic growth for 2020 on growing expectations for an economic recovery, a report showed Friday. As of end-October, nine major global IBs, including Barclays and Goldman Sachs, projected Asia's fourth-largest economy to shrink 1.2 percent this year, compared with their median outlook of a 1.4 percent contraction offered a month earlier, according to the report by the Korea Center for International Finance. T