China’s economic slowdown could deteriorate more than initially projected, increasing the strain on Korea’s export-reliant growth in the short term, an economist from S&P projected. “The number one issue (in China) has to do with private sector debt and over-leveraging. That is a problem that has been building for more than a decade," Diego Iribarren from S&P Global Market Intelligence said in an interview held in the company’s office in central Seoul on Sept

South Korea's major companies performed far worse than their US counterparts in the first half of 2023 due to the sluggish chip and energy sectors amid a global economic slowdown, a report showed Monday. South Korea's top 100 nonfinancial firms listed on the main local bourse saw their combined sales edge up 0.3 percent on-year to $746.3 billion in the January-June period, according to the report by the Federation of Korean Industries. In contrast, the combined top line of the 100 lead

China’s delayed recovery pulls down exports, surging oil prices threaten imports

The Financial Supervisory Service, South Korea's primary financial regulatory body, has issued management advisories to the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives after losing approximately 50.1 billion won ($37.5 million) it poured into an alternative high-yield overseas investment, as revealed by industry sources on Sunday. The NFFC, the umbrella organization for regional fishers' cooperatives throughout the country, reportedly lost the entire principal amount of its investmen

South Korean companies have asked the United States to clarify from which foreign companies they are not required to import critical electric vehicle battery minerals under the US Inflation Reduction Act, industry sources said Sunday. Senior executives of South Korean battery and material companies made the request to US Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves during a closed-door meeting in Seoul on Friday. The executives who attended the meeting were from South Korea's three leading car b

US FOMC leaves its benchmark rate unchanged, South Korea-US rate gap maintained

South Korea's exports moved up 9.8 percent on-year in the first 20 days of September due to a higher number of working days, but shipments of chips and petroleum products remained sluggish, data showed Thursday. The country's outbound shipments reached $36 billion in the Sept. 1-20 period, compared with $32.7 billion tallied a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. Imports fell 1.5 percent on-year to $36.4 billion during the period, resulting in a trade def

Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho said Thursday the government will closely monitor rising global economic uncertainties, after the US central bank decided to hold its key rates overnight. The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced the decision to hold the rate steady between 5.25 percent and 5.50 percent. It raised the rate by a quarter percentage point to the current level in July. "As shown in the recent FOMC meeting, the possibility over the protracted high interest rates have moved up

Overseas account holdings nearly triple on-year as massive virtual assets reflected

South Korea's producer prices expanded 0.9 percent on-month in August on the back of higher global oil prices, the central bank said Wednesday. The producer price index, a major barometer of consumer inflation, came to 121.16 last month, up from 120.08 tallied in July, according to the data from the Bank of Korea. From a year earlier, it rose 1 percent. It marked the sharpest on-month growth since a 1.6 percent rise tallied in April 2022. Producer prices are one of the key indicators that d

South Korea's finance ministry said Monday it has revised down its annual tax revenue estimate to 341.4 trillion won ($256.7 billion), mainly due to weak corporate earnings and a slump in the property market. The latest revision is down 59.1 trillion won from its previous outlook of 400.5 trillion won, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. To tackle the decline in tax revenue, the government also unveiled plans to utilize surplus resources, including those from the foreign excha

South Korean imports of Japanese seafood fell for the fifth consecutive month in August on concerns over Japan's release of treated radioactive water, government data showed Monday. Seoul imported $7.81 million worth of fishery products from the neighboring country last month, down 34.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. August posted the largest on-year decline this year, and last month's import value was the smallest monthly figure in t

A business collaboration platform that will bridge 62 million Indonesian farmers to Korean scientists and global investors has been launched to support them in garnering cutting-edge skills like meta farming and carbon trading, as the two countries work to champion sustainability in the digital economy. The Green Digital Economy Platform (GDEP), spearheaded by HumanX, a global partnership promoting human-centered technology, was officially unveiled on Friday under the endorsement of Indonesi

South Korea's economy is expected to grow 1.4 percent this year, with the country's central bank anticipated to lower its key rate twice in 2024, an economist at S&P Global Ratings said Sunday. The growth forecast by Rajiv Biswas, the chief economist of Asia-Pacific at S&P Global Market Intelligence, comes in line with the South Korean government's projection made in July. Biswas attributed South Korea's sluggish economic growth in 2023 to the Bank of Korea's agg

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has requested South Korea's cooperation in nuclear power, resource development and the defense industry as part of reconstruction efforts of the war-ravaged country, Seoul officials said Saturday. A delegation of government officials and business representatives who visited Kyiv this week to discuss South Korea's potential involvement in reconstruction projects, estimated to be worth around 1,200 trillion won (US$902 billion), returned home Saturd