The Bank of Korea on Monday officially launched a legal team to help smooth the launch of a central bank digital currency and cryptocurrencies rolled out by central banks. The formation of the six-member panel -- comprising external legal experts, lawyers and BOK officials -- was a follow-up to the central bank’s announcement in April, when it said it would carry out a 22-month pilot program until December 2021 to examine how to operate a CBDC system. The BOK had maintained a luk

Household debt up W500tr since 2014

South Korea will set up a fund of 300 billion won ($248.6 million) to provide more liquidity to automobile subcontractors that have been hit by the coronavirus pandemic, a top financial regulator said Monday. Financial Services Commission Chairman Eun Sung-soo said the fund will be jointly set up with carmakers, including Hyundai Motor Co. Hyundai Motor plans to chip in 10 billion won to the fund, and the government has been in talks with other carmakers, Eun said. The fund will provide g

SEJONG -- South Korea's finance minister said Monday the government will spare no efforts to help companies win overseas orders this year, as part of its efforts to revive economic growth amid the coronavirus pandemic. Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said such efforts would help companies clinch overseas orders worth $30 billion this year The government will set up total funds of 3.7 trillion won ($3.07 billion) to aid local firms in winning overseas orders, Hong said. Hong said South Korea pla

The number of people who are in search of jobs hit a record high in May as the new coronavirus outbreak hammered the job market, data showed Sunday. The number of jobless people who had been seeking to find jobs for less than three months reached 735,000 in May, up 107,000 from the previous year, according to Statistics Korea. The tally marked the largest figure for the month of May since the agency began to compile data in June 1999. The monthly growth also marked the largest since January

US-based firms in several sectors are likely to face a prolonged struggle due to the pandemic, and are even at the risk of producing more zombie firms, a report by South Korea’s central bank said Sunday. “The United States government’s active support has helped resolve the liquidity crunch of US-based firms, but the financial indexes of sectors classified as consumer discretionary, industrial products and energy have been relatively weak compared to others,” the weekly

South Korean exports of information and communication technology (ICT) products fell for the second straight month in May, as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic affected demand for displays and mobile phones, data showed Sunday. Outbound shipments of ICT products contracted 2.6 percent on-year to $13.93 billion last month, according to the data from the Ministry of Science and ICT. The May tally follows a 15.3 percent on-year drop in exports in April and a 1.1 percent gain a month earlier, aft

Governor says monetary easing policies are needed until economy heals

SEJONG -- South Korea's government ministries and state agencies have requested a 6 percent hike in their budgets for next year, as they want to spend more on welfare, research and development, the finance ministry said Friday. Ministries and state agencies have asked the government to set aside a combined 542.9 trillion won ($448 billion) for the budget for next year, up 30.7 trillion won from this year's 512.3 trillion won, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. To cope with post

South Korea's finance ministry said Friday that downside risks to the nation's economy have slightly receded but warned that risks of global recession have weighed on an economic recovery. In a monthly report, called the "Green Book," the Ministry of Economy and Finance painted a somewhat positive picture of the economy, compared with its May report.    "With a decline in domestic consumption showing signs of easing and employment indices recovering, downside ri

SEJONG -- South Korea's vice finance minister said Friday the nation's exports showed a "relatively good" sign of recovery in the first 10 days of this month, but warned of risks over a second wave of coronavirus infections. Vice Finance Minister Kim Yong-beom made the remarks a day after South Korea reported a 20.2 percent jump in exports for the June 1-10 period. The sharp rise was mainly attributed to a calendar effect because there were more working days, but it raised hopes fo

Government vows to stabilize overheated housing costs, regardless of pump-priming policy moves

The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday decided to keep its interest rates near zero, adding that it doesn’t expect to raise it until at least 2022, as the economy recovers from the repercussions of the novel coronavirus. As the Fed’s rate decision has fundamentally sent ripples across the global economy including South Korea in the past -- with the US being the world’s largest economy -- the latest move is also expected to have mixed effects on Asia’s fourth-largest econo

The Ministry of Economy and Finance said Thursday it has published an English-language version of a booklet explaining its countermeasures against the economic shock due to the COVID-19 pandemic for the international community. Titled “Safeguarding Economic Resilience,” the booklet introduces a number of fiscal measures that the government has implemented as well as some preliminary policies set up to prepare for the post-COVID-19 era, officials said.  Since February, when co

Loans extended by South Korean insurance companies rose 1.6 percent in the first quarter, but the loan default rate remained unchanged, the financial regulator said Thursday. Insurers' outstanding loans totaled 238.4 trillion won ($200.4 billion) as of the end of March, up 3.7 trillion won from the end of December, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said in a statement. Their loans to households increased 0.1 percent to 121.3 trillion won in the first quarter, while lending to companie