Finance minister gestures at support for Cheong Wa Dae’s income-led growth initiative amid rumors of discord

Blue House denies rumors of finance minister’s resignation

Over the next five years South Korea’s chemical and energy giant GS Group will invest 20 trillion won (about $18 billion) and create 21,000 new jobs to promote growth and market competitiveness, company representatives said Sunday.The investment, 4 trillion won each year, is 25 percent more than the average the group has spent each year over the last three years, and it will be spent mostly on the three pillars of the group’s business -- the petrochemical, energy and retail sectors.A

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said Sunday that a plan to renovate two commercial districts in the metropolitan city will be postponed, citing fears on the real estate market that has seen a rise since the announcement.During his visit to Singapore last month, Park said he would have three major downtown areas, including the financial district of Yeouido and Yongsan, where US troops have long been based, to be renovated under the 2030 Seoul Plan. In an emergency press meeting Sunday, however, Park sa

The Bank of Korea will likely maintain its policy rate at the current 1.5 percent next week as Asia's fourth-largest economy is struggling with sluggish employment and global trade disputes, a market watcher said Saturday.Chaired by Gov. Lee Ju-yeol, the seven-member panel of the BOK will hold its sixth monetary policy meeting Friday and decide whether to keep or adjust the key rate.The key rate has remained unchanged since the central bank raised it by a quarter percentage point from an all-tim

The South Korean government and ruling party on Thursday agreed to propose what they called “the largest-ever” job creation-focused budget for next year, gesturing to spend more funds into supporting low-income clusters.“Considering the favorable tax revenues and sound fiscal soundness, we decided to operate next year’s budget as expansively as possible for the sake of job creation, social safety network and regional economy revitalization,” Rep. Kim Tae-nyeon, chie

The increase in tax revenue that South Korea is expected to see in the coming years should not give it a false sense of security in light of the fiscal cliff that might be ahead, experts say.The government now envisions that an additional 60 trillion won ($53.6 billion) in taxes will be collected over the next five years, compared with amounts projected in a midterm fiscal management plan drawn up last year. Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon recently said the excess revenue would amount to 19 trill

South Korea's corporate watchdog said Tuesday that it has decided to give up its own right to file complaints about some major cases such as price rigging in a move to support effective law enforcement and better protect consumers' rights.Under the current Fair Trade Act, the Fair Trade Commission is the only entity that can bring an antitrust trade case to court through the state prosecutors' office. The law is aimed at preventing a flood of lawsuits being filed against firms by individuals and

South Korea's producer prices rose to a four-year high in July as the worst heat in recent years hurt the farming sector, central bank data showed Tuesday.The producer price index, a barometer of future consumer inflation, reached 104.8 last month, up 0.4 percent from a month earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea. From a year earlier, it rose 2.9 percent to extend its positive streak to 21 straight months from November 2016. The July figure was the highest reading sin

The government’s assessment that the Korean economy is still on the path to recovery is being dented by figures showing employment and corporate profitability are continuing to worsen sharply.A monthly report recently released by the Ministry of Economy and Finance adhered to the positive assessment of economic activities for nine consecutive months in August. Ministry officials have rebuffed suggestions by many economists that the country’s economy took a downward turn entering the

South Korea's corporate watchdog on Monday unveiled a set of anti-corruption measures whose centerpiece seeks to boost the ethics code for its staff and ban help for retirees looking to get jobs at corporations related to their former duties.Under the measures, the Fair Trade Commission will enhance the screening of retirees' job-landing activities at private companies.Also, the corporate watchdog said it will ban any private contacts between its employees and retirees. The measures came after p

Concerns have been mounting recently that despite the government’s continued efforts, the secondary stock market Kosdaq may continue to struggle throughout the year due to sluggish investor sentiment here and external trade challenges.The Kosdaq index on Thursday dived into the 740s, nearing the year’s record-low of 744.11, a figure observed on July 25, according to the nation’s bourse Korea Exchange and Ministry of SMEs and Startups on Sunday.The index soon rebounded to the 77

SK Lubricants’ brand SK ZIC has signed a three-year sponsorship deal with FC Barcelona in its latest move to boost brand recognition and sales, the firm said Sunday.SK Lubricants -- owned 100 percent by South Korean refiner SK Innovation -- became the first South Korean corporate sponsor of FC Barcelona since the football club’s foundation in 1899.“We plan to increase SK ZIC’s brand recognition and global sales through the sponsorship,” SK Lubricant said in a press

South Korea is expected to be one of the countries most affected by the protracted trade war between the United States and China, though the impact is forecast to remain limited, a report said Sunday. According to the report from the Korea International Trade Association, the country's gross domestic product is forecast to drop 0.018 percent, worth some $236.49 million, over a year if the US and China each impose 25 percent tariffs on the other's $50 billion worth of goods. China and the US are

Korea's unemployment rate rose slightly in July due to fewer positions in the health care, education academy and manufacturing sectors, with the number of new jobs created hitting the lowest in over eight years, government data showed Friday.The unemployment rate stood at 3.7 percent last month, up 0.3 percentage point from a year earlier, according to the report compiled by Statistics Korea. The number of employed people reached 27.08 million in July, up just 5,000 from the same one-month perio