South Korea's national pension operator reported losses in its stock investment in the first quarter of this year, due mainly to the poor performance by major local equities amid unfavorable external conditions, a market research firm said Wednesday.The value of 302 company stocks in which the National Pension Service holds more than a 5 percent stake came to 121.22 trillion won ($113.92 billion) as of the end of March, down 2.01 percent from the end of 2017, according to the data by FnGuide Inc

SEJONG -- South Korea's jobless rate moved up slightly in March due to a rise in unemployment in the retail and educational service sectors, government data showed Wednesday.The unemployment rate stood at 4.5 percent last month, up 0.4 percentage point from a year earlier, according to the report compiled by Statistics Korea.The seasonally adjusted jobless rate also rose to 4 percent in March, from 3.6 percent a year earlier, the data showed.The number of employed people reached 26.55 million in

The head of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) on Tuesday called for brokerages to strengthen protection for investors and internal control, in the wake of chaos over a dividend payment error at Samsung Securities Co.At a meeting with the heads of 17 brokerages, FSS Gov. Kim Ki-sik said they must conduct reviews of their internal control mechanisms to prevent such errors from happening again and urged them to come up with fundamental measures to regain investor confidence and strengthen eth

About 16 percent of apartments bought and sold in Seoul during the first quarter of the year were expensive real estate.Out of the 24,606 Seoul apartments traded between January and March, 3,921 units were worth over 900 million won ($841,000), according to statistics released by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Monday. It posted a rapid on-year increase. During the same period last year, only 11.5 percent of apartments bought and sold were worth over 900 million won.  Mea

Cheong Wa Dae turns down calls for Kim’s dismissal

Concerns are growing over the negative impact of the strengthening won on Korea’s exports, with expectations also being raised that a rise in the value of the currency will help boost investment and consumption.The value of the won gained 1.16 percent against the US dollar over the past two weeks to close at 1,069.6 won per dollar in the Seoul foreign exchange market Friday.It marked the second-steepest appreciation among the currencies of Group of 20 major economies following Mexico&rsquo

South Korea's chief economic policy maker on Monday sought cooperation from smaller firms to create quality jobs to reduce the country's high youth unemployment rate.Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon made the remark during a meeting with executives of small and medium-sized enterprises held in Seoul."We hope the planned support for SMEs will lead to job creation beyond the current level of employment," Kim said, referring to the government's proposed extra budget. Early this month, the go

The sharp rise in the country's minimum wage this year is fueling inflationary pressure and concerns of public charge hikes going forward that can increase the burden on ordinary people, market watchers said Sunday.The government marked up the minimum wage for all workers by 16.4 percent in 2018 to 7,530 won ($7.04) from 6,470 in 2017 as part of a broader move by the incumbent Moon Jae-in administration to reduce the pay gap between workers and fuel private consumption that can act as a growth e

Korea's top 10 business groups accounted for 79.1 percent of all net profits generated by companies listed on the country's main stock exchange in 2017, the local bourse operator said Sunday.According to the Korea Exchange, of the 533 companies checked that settled their accounts in December, profits by the 62 affiliates belonging to the country's 10 largest chaebol, or family-run conglomerates, totaled 90.6 trillion won ($84.7 billion), up 57.1 percent from the 57.6 trillion won tallied in 2016

Korea's central bank will likely hold its key rate steady at the upcoming monetary policy meeting due largely to low inflationary pressure, a leading provider of economic analysis said Sunday.The Bank of Korea is set to hold its rate review session Thursday to decide whether to keep or adjust the current 1.5 percent. The BOK has maintained the present rate since it raised it by a quarter percentage point from an all-time low of 1.25 percent in November."The Bank of Korea will likely keep th

The rise in the real value of the South Korean won compared to other major currencies in recent years has lowered import prices and fueled investments in facilities and private sector consumption, a report said Friday.According to real effective exchange rate (REER) indices compiled by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the exchange rate for the South Korean currency has steadily risen and stood at 123.2 points as of the end of January from 115.34 in April 2015.REER is the weighted av

Consumer prices in South Korea remain stable, but the government is ready to take actions to curb spikes in some items, such as agricultural goods and services, a deputy finance minister said Friday."Consumer prices in March gained 1.3 percent from a year earlier, slowing from the previous month's growth and logging a 1 percent gain for the sixth consecutive month," Ko Hung-kwon said in a meeting to assess price trends here."But some food prices surged, and the government will con

The United States and China will likely strike a trade deal to stave off a possible trade war that could undermine the world's two biggest economies, a state-run trade agency said Thursday.The two global powers this week have moved to slap massive tariffs on each other's goods, sparking fears of a trade war."It is possible the two sides will engage in negotiations to produce a compromise deal as any implementation of retaliatory tariffs will cause catastrophic losses on the economies of the

Korea has designated Gunsan, the home to General Motors' money-losing assembly line, as an emergency response zone to provide job support and tax incentives as the southwestern city is expected to suffer high unemployment, the commerce ministry said Thursday.The designation came nearly two months after the American automaker in February announced a plan to shut down its underutilized Gunsan plant, 274 kilometers south of Seoul, by the end of May.The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said it

The government has submitted a supplementary budget worth 3.9 trillion won ($3.7 billion) in an emergency gesture to alleviate the nation’s unemployment crisis and revitalize regional economies in distress, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance on Thursday.Responding to opposition parties, which have criticized the extra spending plan as a tax-imposing populist move, the ministry says the costs may be covered without additional taxation, citing surplus tax revenue for this year