The government, ruling party and presidential office vowed Sunday to draft an additional budget worth more than 7 trillion won ($5.88 billion), mostly to fund another set of disaster relief subsidies to deal with the economic fallout from COVID-19. The decision, which rekindled concerns about the country’s fiscal soundness, came as the densely populated greater Seoul area faced an extended week of social distancing to contain the second wave of the pandemic. Representatives of the go

The volume of short-term floating capital in South Korea surpassed the 1,200 trillion won ($900 billion) mark, as the government seeks to funnel the liquidity into a 20 trillion fund tied to the Korean New Deal package, data showed Sunday. The amount of cash and other short-term capital totaled 1,273.6 trillion won as of end-June, data compiled by the Bank of Korea and the Korea Financial Investment Association showed. By asset, the M1 money supply, which is essentially cash, came to 1058.1 t

South Korea's top economic policymaker expressed concerns over the resurgence of the novel coronavirus in the country hurting growth and said efforts are under way to bolster the economy during an online meeting with a global credit appraiser, the finance ministry here said Saturday. The teleconference between Minister of Economy and Finance Hong Nam-ki and James McCormack, the general manager at Fitch Ratings, took place late Friday, with a focus on actions being taken by Seoul to stem the s

The Ministry of Economy and Finance said Friday it has assigned a budget of 170 billion won ($142.8 million) for 2021 to develop a homegrown vaccine against the novel coronavirus. Designed to support local companies’ research and development of the COVID-19 vaccine, the government will inject 31.9 billion won into clinical trials of candidate materials for the drug and 7.4 billion won for non-human clinical trials, the ministry said.  Also,131.4 billion won will be spent on a seri

South Korea on Friday said it will implement a second round of state emergency relief funds targeted at small business operators and beleaguered families most affected by an explosive surge in COVID-19 cases. “Discussions are underway to identify the most damaged small business sectors. (The government) plans to announce a comprehensive plan for the second round of emergency relief grants as early as next week,” Vice Finance Minister Kim Yong-beom said Friday in an interview with

It might take longer than expected for South Korea’s manufacturing productivity to rebound to pre-pandemic levels, even if exports recover, the central bank said Thursday. “It has been found that a slowdown in manufacturing productivity is tied to a drop in exports, but we were unable to find a relationship between growth in exports and short-term improvement in manufacturing,” the Bank of Korea said in its regular economic report. “Even if the global economy recovers,

South Korea's outbound shipments of agricultural products rose nearly 5 percent on-year in the first eight months of 2020, data showed Thursday, helped by the rising demand for instant products amid the new coronavirus pandemic. Exports of agricultural goods, which include processed foodstuffs, reached $4.8 billion in the January-August period, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Shipments of processed foodstuffs increased 6.2 percent over t

South Korea's dependence on China for exports and foreign investments has increased since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, a report showed Thursday. China accounted for 24.3 percent of South Korea's exports in the first seven months of this year, up 1.5 percentage points from a year earlier, according to the report from the top business lobby, the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI). The hike came despite a 10.6 percent plunge in South Korea's overall overseas shipments in the wake of

In light of growing concerns about the nation’s fiscal soundness amid the coronavirus pandemic, South Korea should take a leaf from Germany’s debt-brake law to stabilize its debt ratio, a think tank here said Wednesday. Asia’s fourth-largest economy’s debt-to-gross domestic product ratio has so far shown moderate growth, but it could surge rapidly under the current circumstances, a report released by the Korea Economic Research Institute said. The debt-to-GDP ratio wa

South Korea’s central bank said Wednesday it has launched research into adopting artificial intelligence deep learning to extract economic growth forecasts, amid growing uncertainties stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. The Bank of Korea expressed anticipations of predicting the nation’s gross domestic product readings and other key economic indexes by utilizing deep learning, which is a subset of AI technology, in its regular economic report. The research is still in its early

Loans extended to companies in South Korea jumped by the largest amount on record in the second quarter, as financial firms sharply increased lending to the service sector hit hard by the new coronavirus outbreak, central bank data showed Wednesday. The outstanding amount of corporate loans came to 1,328.2 trillion won ($1.12 trillion) at the end of June, up 69.1 trillion won from three months earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). It compared with a 51.4 trillion won ri

South Korea's exports of eco-friendly automobiles rose nearly 23 percent in the first half of 2020 from a year earlier, data showed Wednesday. Outbound shipments of eco-friendly cars, including electric vehicles, reached $3.16 billion in the January-June period, taking up 20 percent of the country's total automobile exports, according to the data compiled by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA). Over the cited period, however, South Korea's overall exports of cars dipped 27.3 perc

South Korean banks' credit loans to individuals shot up by more than 4 trillion won in August from a month earlier, the largest-ever monthly gain, industry data showed Wednesday. Outstanding unsecured loans to individuals by five major lenders -- KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori and NH Nonghyup -- totaled 124.3 trillion won ($105 billion) last month, up 4.1 trillion won from July. KB Kookmin registered the largest monthly hike of 1.06 trillion won, followed by Shinhan with 1.05 trillion won.

SEJONG -- South Korea's consumer prices rose 0.7 percent on-year in August due to a rise in prices of agricultural goods, marking the second consecutive month of increase amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Wednesday. The August tally accelerates from a 0.3 percent on-year gain in July, according to the data released by Statistics Korea. The nation's inflation also climbed 0.6 percent on-month in August, the data showed. Core inflation, which excludes agricultural and petroleum pro

Market observers worry about W945tr sovereign debt