Geopolitical risk, aging population are short- and long-term downside factors for Korea

South Korea's tax revenue was tallied at 20.5 trillion won ($18 billion) in September, up 2.9 trillion won from a year earlier, the finance ministry said Tuesday.Income tax revenue amounted to 3.7 trillion won in September, up 0.5 trillion won from a year earlier, due to a rise in wages. Dues collected by companies also increased 1.9 trillion won on-year to reach 10.1 trillion won in the one-month period, the ministry said.Value-added tax revenue reached 2.1 trillion won in September, also up 0.

LG Corp., the holding firm of South Korea's No. 4 conglomerate LG Group, has made the list of the top 20 socially valuable companies in the world, industry sources said Tuesday.LG earned 79 points out of the full 100 in the societal return on investment survey by U.S. pollster Harris Poll and marketing consultant Finn Partners, tying for 13th place. LG is the sole South Korean and Asian company that has been included on the list. It has ranked second among non-U.S.-based companies after German s

The National Assembly is expected to hold a confirmation hearing for Hong Nam-ki, the finance minister nominee, early next month after handling the government's 2019 budget proposal.On Friday, President Moon Jae-in named Hong, the chief of the government policy coordination office under the prime minister's office, to replace Kim Dong-yeon as finance minister and deputy prime minister for economic affairs.The ruling Democratic Party is seeking to hold the hearing for Hong around on Dec. 3-5, aft

South Korea’s newly appointed economic policymakers -- in contrast to their predecessors who took office with high hopes upon the inauguration of the Moon Jae-in administration -- appear to be off to a rocky start, amid escalating concerns and disapproval of the government’s economic policy direction.For the time being, the newly appointed deputy prime minister for economy and presidential chief of staff for policy are expected to press ahead with Moon’s disputed economic polic

Controversy is intensifying over a move by the government and ruling party to encourage large corporations to share profits with their subcontractors and suppliers.Government policymakers and lawmakers from the Democratic Party of Korea last week agreed to work together to introduce what is called the cooperative profit-sharing system. The controversial scheme is to be put into practice as early as February, if a law designed to provide incentives to participating companies is enacted within the

Non-life insurers' loss rate for their auto insurance businesses jumped in the third quarter, as a prolonged stretch of hot weather led to a raft of claims, data showed Monday. The nation's 11 non-life insurers posted an average loss rate of 87.6 percent in the third quarter, compared with 80.7 percent a quarter earlier, according to the data by the Financial Supervisory Service. The loss rate refers to the proportion of coverage a non-life insurer pays to its policyholders from insurance premiu

South Korea has been hit hard by trade frictions between the United States and China, Seoul's financial regulator said Monday, calling for efforts to revamp export industries and nurture new growth engines.Kim Yong-beom, vice chairman of the Financial Services Commission, made the remarks in a lecture hosted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Seoul. "South Korea is effectively at ground zero after being directly impacted by global trade disputes," Kim said, pointing to th

South Korea's industry minister vowed to cut red tape to ease the excessive burden felt by businesses and expand support for the slumping manufacturing industry.Sung Yun-mo, minister of trade, industry and energy, renewed his pledge for deregulation in a meeting with representatives from the nation's leading companies. "The main manufacturing sectors, such as auto and shipbuilding, are undergoing difficult times in the wake of growth by Chinese rivals and lack of general momentum that is ne

The finance minister nominee said Monday that he will work on a set of measures aimed at boosting the country's growth potential, with a focus on improving dismal job conditions."My task is to help maintain the country's growth potential at a stable level, and I have to lay the foundation for it to be raised going forward," Hong Nam-ki told reporters in Seoul.President Moon Jae-in named Hong the country's next finance minister Friday, sacking the incumbent Kim Dong-yeon.He is set to fa

South Korea's exports fell by 4.8 percent in the first 10 days of this month from a year earlier due largely to a decline in shipments of chips and fewer working days, customs data showed Monday.The country's outbound shipments reached US$15.3 billion in the November 1-10 period, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. The office said that daily average exports, which reflect working days, rose 1.1 percent on-year to $1.91 billion compared to a year earlier.By product, outbound shi

South Korea's government will focus all of its efforts to improve people's livelihoods and push forward timely structural reforms that can back up income-led growth goals, the finance minister nominee said Sunday.In a meeting with reporters just after he was named the country's next finance minister Friday, Hong Nam-ki said Asia's fourth-largest economy is currently in a transitional period. He said that the country needs to take steps to carry out necessary economic reforms so as to lay the fou

Startups in the manufacturing industry, especially in knowledge intensive fields like semiconductors, tend to contribute more to job creation in the long term, compared with those in the service sector, a report said Sunday.According to the report published by the Bank of Korea, a one percentage point rise in the founding of new manufacturing firms will bring about a 3.3 percentage point gain in employment over a 10-year business span.The figures are based on employment and corporate data from 2

South Korea's manufacturing sector output fell sharply in the first nine months of the year, with smaller businesses affected more than big companies, government data showed Sunday.According to the 2018 mining and manufacturing sector data released by Statistics Korea, output numbers fell 0.4 percent on-year in the January-September period for large corporations, while corresponding figures for small and medium-sized enterprises dropped 4.3 percent. The sharper drop for smaller companies comes a

The South Korean economy's ability to create new jobs is expected to fall to the lowest level in nine years in 2018, the central bank's estimate showed Sunday.The Bank of Korea expected the gross domestic product elasticity of Asia's fourth-largest economy to stand at 0.11 this year, the lowest since 2009, when the nation grappled with slowing growth following the global financial crisis in the previous year.The GDP elasticity of employment, which shows how many jobs are created for industr