The chief of South Korea’s central bank on Monday urged the nation to build economic resilience to external shock factors, amid the prolonged US-China trade conflict and its negative impact. He also reiterated the need for structural reform to rev up the country’s growth potential and job creation capacity. “Global economic linkages have been slowing lately due to the impact of the trade dispute (between Washington and Beijing),” said Lee Ju-yeol, governor of the Bank of

SEJONG -- Compared with past governments, the Moon Jae-in administration has been actively increasing public expenditure to benefit jobless people in their 20s and early 30s.However, many have cast doubt on the efficacy of its strategy of pouring dozens of trillions of won in taxpayer money into job creation over the past two years since May 2017.This year, the incumbent government is struggling to prevent the economic growth rate from falling sharply by proposing a supplementary budget bill, dr

South Korea's exports dropped 9.4 percent in May from a year earlier, extending their on-year fall for the sixth consecutive month, data showed Saturday, due mainly to the sluggish shipments of chips and the weak Chinese economy.  Outbound shipments came to US$45.9 billion for May, down from the $50.68 billion tallied a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.  Imports moved down 1.9 percent last month to $43.64 billion, the minis

South Korea's central bank left its policy rate unchanged at 1.75 percent Friday amid lingering concerns over weaker economic growth. The monetary policy board of the Bank of Korea voted to leave the bellwether rate steady for the sixth straight month after raising it by a quarter percentage point in November last year. The BOK's wait-and-see stance had been widely expected as South Korea's economy shows some signs of a downturn in exports and tepid domestic demand amid protracted US-China trade

The number of births in South Korea plunged to an all-time monthly low of 27,100 in March, according to Statistics Korea, reflecting the nation’s declining marriage and fertility rates. Data showed that 27,100 babies were born in March, down 9.7 percent on-year, marking the lowest figure for March since the agency began compiling related data in 1981. This is also the first time the birthrate in March has dropped below the 30,000 level. The number of marriages also dropped to 19,600 in the

Seoul will be exempted from watch list next time if current conditions continue: US Treasury

South Korea’s global competitiveness ranking dropped one place this year, amid an economic slowdown hit by reduced exports and capital investments, an annual report by a Switzerland-based international institute showed Wednesday.The International Institute for Management Development said in its report that Korea ranked 28th in terms of world competitiveness among the 63 countries surveyed. It was ranked 27th last year.The institute, since 1997, has been ranking economies based on four cate

In an apparent move to advocate the incumbent government’s real estate measures, the Land Ministry said Tuesday that Seoul’s housing prices had grown at a stable rate for the past five years, compared to fluctuations observed in real estate transaction prices in other major cities. Seoul saw an average 18.9 percent rate fluctuation in its housing price from 2014 to 2018, according to the data, which was released as part of a seminar co-hosted by the ministry and the state-run Ko

South Korea’s composite consumer sentiment index fell in May for the first time in six months, due to a slowing economy, volatile stock market and concerns over the escalating trade war between the US and China.　The Bank of Korea said Tuesday that the CSI -- which measures consumers’ optimism about the economy -- came to 97.9 for May, down 3.7 points from the previous month.It marks the first decline in the index since November 2018, when it fell to 95.7. It had been on a five-month

SEJONG -- South Koreans have sharply increased their shopping through computers and smartphones in recent years, which is taking up more than 20 percent of their total consumption.The rapid growth of online shopping transactions has been backed by systematic parcel delivery services, which send products to consumers across the country in one to three days.Almost every kind of product -- from drinking water, food and cosmetics to clothing, home appliances and furniture -- are available on online

President Moon Jae-in visited a southeastern rural village Friday to encourage farmers who were busy planting rice. He briefly planted rice himself and attended the test operation of an agricultural drone and a self-driving rice-planting device in Oksan village in Gyeongju, 371 kilometers southeast of Seoul, according to his office, Cheong Wa Dae."Given the reality of rural areas suffering difficulties from the aging population and labor shortages, there's a desperate need to develop and sp

Overseas card spending by South Koreans fell in the first quarter, despite the rising number of outbound tourists, as a weaker Korean won discouraged them from swiping cards overseas, central bank data showed on May 23.　In the January-March period, Koreans spent $4.68 billion using cards abroad, down 3.3 percent from three months earlier, according to the data by the Bank of Korea.　Quarterly card spending peaked at a record $5.07 billion in the first three months of 2018. But it declined for two

The wage gap between male and female workers at large firms here widened in the first quarter from a year earlier, data showed Thursday.Women working for 202 major listed companies were paid an average 15.37 million won ($12,910) in the January-March period, or 63.5 percent of the median pay of 24.2 million won for male employees, according to the data by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news and information arm of Yonhap News Agency.It was slightly lower than the 64.6 percent ratio recorded during

Export-oriented economy continues to face trade friction factors

SEJONG -- The manufacturing industry has come to a standstill in output and productivity that could further weaken the nation’s already lackluster economic growth, which has suffered as a result of sagging exports and weak private consumption.According to Statistics Korea, the manufacturing production capacity index stood at 101.4 in February 2019 -- the lowest level in 33 months, since May 2016, when it posted the same figure. Though the index inched up to 101.6 in March 2019 (the la