A leading economic index for South Korea inched down in September, heralding a contraction for Asia's No. 4 economy down the road, data showed Thursday.The composite leading indicator of economic activity for South Korea stood at 98.69 in September, down 0.09 point from the previous month, according to the data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.September marked the 28th consecutive month of on-month decline, the longest losing streak among members of the Paris-based

South Korea's vehicle exports fell 10 percent last month from a year earlier due to lower demand in emerging markets, data showed Thursday. South Korean carmakers shipped a total of 208,714 vehicles in October, down from 230,086 units a year ago amid a slowing global economy, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said in a statement.  "Lower demand in Asia and Latin America fully offset increased sales of Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. in North America and rising demand in

South Korea’s key job indexes showed visible progress in October, with the employment rate hitting a 23-year high for any October and the jobless rate at its lowest in six years, government data showed Wednesday.But despite the general uptrend, the nation’s backbone manufacturing industry continued to shed jobs. The figures for those in their 30s and 40s also continued to disappoint, stirring up concerns that the apparent improvement is mostly driven by government spending in the pub

South Korea's economy is expected to grow 2.3 percent in 2020, slightly higher than this year's estimated 2 percent expansion, on the back of a slight improvement in domestic demand and exports, the state-run Korea Development Institute said Wednesday.The growth outlook for next year is line with a forecast by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.In September, the OECD said Asia's fourth-largest economy could expand 2.3 percent in 2020, slower than its previous forecast of 2

South Korea will build 30,000 smart factories and 10 smart industrial zones by 2022 as part of efforts to deal with a looming decline of the country's working-age population, the finance minister said Wednesday.Hong Nam-ki said the number of people working at smart factories and smart industrial zones could stand at 100,000, which he said would help improve productivity.A smart factory is a highly digitized and connected production facility aimed at improving productivity and safety at workplace

South Korea announced plans to kick-start the so-called reverse annuity mortgage market Wednesday in an effort to help support elderly homeowners financially.The measure, unveiled by a pan-governmental task force on population policy, would lower the age limit for applicants for reverse annuity mortgages to 55 from the current 60 years old.The government will also push to expand the scope of eligible homes. Owners of homes with a government-set price of 900 million won ($771,000) or lower will b

South Korea's jobless rate hit a six-year low in October, and job additions came to 419,000 from a year earlier, data showed Wednesday.  The unemployment rate fell 0.5 percentage point on-year to 3 percent in October, also marking the lowest level for any October since 2013.  The number of employed people reached 27.5 million in October, a rise of 419,000 from the same month in 2018, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.   It marked the third straight

The value of mergers and acquisitions by listed firms in South Korea amounted to 7.3 trillion won ($6.2 billion) in the first six months of this year, data showed Tuesday. There were 139 mergers, spinoffs and business sales in the January-June period, compared with 294 cases worth 38.7 trillion won in 2018, according to the data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Service. The half-year value marked the lowest in two years due to a lack of big name mergers, the FSS said. Inter-affiliate M&

SEJONG -- South Korea’s economic growth is projected to fall behind that of the US this year, according to outlooks from global investment banks and international organizations.Most of them have predicted that Korea’s 2019 gross domestic product growth will stay at about 2 percent or under on-year, and some researchers at home and abroad are further expecting the gloomy situation to continue in 2020.Fitch Ratings, J.P. Morgan and Barclays have forecast 2.3 percent growth for South Ko

South Korea's finance minister said Monday that the government will make efforts to achieve economic growth of more than 2.3 percent next year.Hong Nam-ki made the pledge citing recent improved growth forecasts by the International Monetary Fund and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.The IMF and the OECD have projected that the South Korean economy could grow 2.2 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively, in 2020."I am neither excessively optimistic nor pessimistic on nex

South Korea suffered a some 41 percent tumble in the number of visiting Chinese tourists over the past three years since its decision to deploy an advanced US missile defense system here, a report said Monday.A total of 4.79 million Chinese visited South Korea in 2018, down 40.6 percent from 8.07 million two years earlier, according to the report from the Federation of Korean Industries. In contrast, the number of Chinese tourists to Japan surged 31.4 percent to 8.38 million over the cited perio

South Korea's exports fell 20.8 percent in the first 10 days of November mainly due to decreased shipments of semiconductors and ships, customs data showed Monday.The country's exports stood at $11.9 billion in the November 1-10 period, compared with $15 billion in the same period last year, according to the Korea Customs Service. By product, exports of semiconductors and ships fell 33.3 percent and 64.4 percent, respectively. Outbound shipments of petroleum products and passenger cars also decl

South Korea's economy is expected to grow in the low end of 2 percent next year, probably higher than this year's estimated expansion, industry data showed on Sunday.According to the median of eight brokerage houses on next year's growth estimates, Asia's fourth-largest economy is projected to grow 2.1 percent, with the highest estimate being 2.3 percent.They cited the conclusion of the ongoing US-China trade row, expansionary policies in major economies and aggressive fiscal spending here. &quo

Weighed down by the prolonged slow growth and the government’s consequent fiscal expansion, South Korea’s fiscal deficit reached a record-high level, data by the Ministry of Economy and Finance showed Friday.According to the monthly fiscal trend report, the accumulated fiscal balance as of the end of September stood at 26.5 trillion won ($22.9 billion) in deficit.The corresponding figure had plunged into the red in 2005, 2006, 2009 and from 2013 to 2015, but the latest deficit volume

Standard & Poor‘s on Wednesday affirmed its AA sovereign credit rating for South Korea, despite earlier slashing its growth outlook for Asia’s fourth-largest economy.The global rating agency also maintained its stable outlook for the South Korean economy.“The stable outlook reflects our expectation that geopolitical risks in the Korean Peninsula will not escalate to the point of hurting Korea‘s economic fundamentals over the next two years,” the global rating ag