Corporate bond issues in South Korea soared nearly 54 percent to recover to pre-coronavirus levels in May, with foreign bond holdings hitting a new high, data showed Monday. South Korean companies floated bonds of 11.4 trillion won ($9.47 billion) last month, up 54.1 percent from the previous month, according to the data from the Korea Financial Investment Association. The amount is close to the corporate debt sales of 12.3 trillion won in February, a month before the World Health Organizatio

Earnings forecasts for South Korea's listed firms rebounded from a long downturn last week amid rising hopes for their possible exit from the coronavirus shock, a market tracker said Monday. Companies listed on the country's main stock market saw the average estimate of their earnings per share (EPS) for the next 12 months amount to 6,038 won ($4.99) on Thursday, up 2.5 percent from the prior week, according to FnGuide. The increase in EPS, or a company's profit divided by its outstanding com

Despite some recovery on the back of the government’s expansionary fiscal moves, South Korea’s economy is continuing to contract, as the negative impact of COVID-19 spreads across all industries, a state-run think tank warned Sunday. The pessimistic analysis came as the country is exerting all policy efforts to boost the virus-hit economy, including a 35.3 trillion-won ($29.2 billion) supplementary budget bill submitted to the National Assembly on Thursday. “The Korean econo

Among OECD members, Korea’s dollar exchange rate second only to Colombia’s

Business lobby groups in 18 countries forecast the global economy to contract 4 percent this year due to the impact of the new coronavirus outbreak, a South Korean industry association said Sunday. The 4 percent negative growth outlook is worse than the International Monetary Fund's forecast of a 3 percent contraction for the year and better than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's 5.1 percent contraction, the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) said in a statement.&

South Korean exports of electric vehicles and ships to the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) gained momentum in 2019 on the back of a bilateral free trade agreement, Seoul's trade ministry said Friday. Seoul signed the pact with the four-nation economic block comprising Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Lichtenstein in July 2005 before implementing it a year later. It was South Korea's FTA with European nations. "The agreement has played a pump-priming role in expanding bilateral tra

South Korea in April saw its largest current account deficit in nearly a decade, with the COVID-19 pandemic dealing a blow to the nation’s trade, data from the central bank showed Thursday. The export-reliant economy suffered a current account deficit of $3.12 billion, marking the largest amount since January 2011 when the corresponding figure stood at $3.16 billion, the Bank of Korea said. The figure also marked the first current account deficit in nearly a year, as the nation had mai

Govt. pushes deregulatory efforts to revive virus-hit economy

      South Korea’s financial regulator said Thursday it had replaced three senior deputy governors at the Financial Supervisory Service, appointing the incumbent head of the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit as the FSS’s first senior deputy governor. Kim Geun-ik was officially named as the financial watchdog’s first senior deputy governor by the Financial Services Commission during its temporary meeting on Thursday morning, officials said. The KoFIU

The National Tax Service has launched a special probe into allegations of tax evasion by Starbucks Korea, according to local media outlets Thursday. The Seoul office of the NTS has conducted an irregular tax investigation into allegations the US coffee chain rigged prices of raw materials and products while importing them from its overseas branches, according to terrestrial broadcaster SBS. In May, the tax agency secured audit books and computerized data from Starbucks Korea’s head offi

SEJONG -- South Korea will allow consumers to get foreign currencies via a no-contact delivery service if they change the Korean won into foreign currencies through a digital platform, Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Thursday. The move is part of the government's efforts to ease regulations as it seeks to revive economic growth and promote contactless industrial sectors amid the coronavirus pandemic. To spur competition in foreign exchange transactions, the government will also allow broke

South Korea suffered the largest current account deficit in almost a decade in April due mainly to a sharp decline in exports caused by the coronavirus pandemic, central bank data showed Thursday. The country posted a current account deficit of $3.12 billion in the month, marking a turnaround from a $5.96 billion surplus the month before, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The reading marks the largest current account deficit since January 2011. The deficit also came

South Korea‘s economy may contract by more than 2 percent in the second quarter of this year as the country reels from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the country’s top economic policymaker said Wednesday. 　 In a interview with Yonhap News TV, Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said while the country‘s real gross domestic product (GDP) posted minus 1.3 percent growth in the first quarter of 2020, compared with three months earlier, that number could fall into the lower negat

Despite the rosy picture painted by the government about its third supplementary budget of 35.3 trillion won ($29 billion) announced Wednesday, concerns are rising about the nation’s fiscal soundness as national debt will increase by around 100 trillion won, propelling the debt-gross domestic ratio to a record-high. The proposal follows the first and second supplementary budgets worth a combined 23.9 trillion won, allocated in recent months, to minimize the economic fallout from the COVI

‘Mega-sized budget’ proposed to normalize virus-hit economy, deputy PM dismisses concerns on fiscal aggravation