South Korea's finance minister renewed his calls for innovative growth across the country Friday in the latest appeal to bolster Asia's fourth-largest economy.Kim Dong-yeon also said the government should put in place infrastructure to support innovation and asked relevant officials in different ministries and government agencies to produce tangible outcomes of innovative growth.South Korea has taken a series of steps to boost innovation in recent years. Kim's comments came amid intensifying glo

The home ownership rate in South Korea came to 55.5 percent in 2016, data showed Friday.The annual data released by Statistics Korea said 10.7 million households out of 19.36 million across the country owned homes in 2016.Statistics Korea said 26.9 percent of 10.07 million households owned two or more homes last year, up 1.5 percentage points.The average price of houses came to 227 million won ($207,000) and the average area of a dwelling is 86.3 square meter. The data also showed that the total

The Pohang earthquake on Wednesday that has rekindled national anxiety over the safety of nuclear power plants -- mostly located in the southeastern part of the Korean Peninsula -- is likely to add momentum to the Moon Jae-in government’s nuclear-free energy road map.Anti-nuclear groups here anticipate the agenda may even rethink the recent decision to continue with the construction of new reactors.“Earthquakes in Korea are all the more dangerous as they may hit upon nuclear power pl

The number of residents with foreign nationalities and those who have naturalized living in South Korea has reached 1.76 million as of 2016, 3.4 percent of the entire population, data by Statistics Korea released by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security showed. This is a 3.1 percent increase from 2015, and a threefold surge from 2006 when the first set of statistics was gathered.Most, or 32.4 percent, were residing in Gyeonggi Province followed by 22.9 percent in Seoul and 6.5 perce

One third of foreign expatriates residing in Busan were found to be low-skilled laborers with insufficient capacity to spend, a report by the Bank of Korea’s Busan office showed Thursday. A spokesperson from the BOK Busan voiced the opinion that the influx of foreign residents should be selective to encourage contributions to local economic growth.According to report by the central bank office, in 2015, Busan -- as Korea’s second-largest city -- had 3.5 percent of the total foreign p

Kim Young-joo, who was officially elected as the new chairman of the Korea International Trade Association on Thursday, said he would focus on helping Korea’s small and medium-sized enterprises thrive on a global level.  　“Korea’s SMEs account for a small share of exports compared to other advanced countries,” said Kim, during a press conference held at the InterContinental Seoul Coex on Thursday.　“We will seek various support measures to enable SMEs and start-

South Korea's finance minister said Thursday that he will take into account the business community's ideas in crafting policy, calling entrepreneurs "partners for economic development."Kim Dong-yeon made the pledge to Park Yong-maan, chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, during their meeting in central Seoul.The policymaker also praised businessmen as key people behind innovative growth. Park delivered the business community's proposals on the current economic situati

South Korea's top economic policymaker on Thursday met with the Chinese ambassador to Seoul to discuss ways to bolster economic cooperation following the latest efforts to improve bilateral relations."I highly anticipate that the economic ties between South Korea and China will become stronger," Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said in a meeting with Beijing envoy Qui Guohong.Seoul-Beijing relations have been at its lowest ebb due to China's protest against the deployment of the THAAD mi

More than half of South Korean people think the effect of 1997 Asian financial crisis still has an influence on society and their daily lives, a survey by the Korea Development Institute showed.South Korea suffered a slump in its currency and sharp devaluation in its stock markets and asset prices in 1997, eventually forced to turn to a bailout package from the International Monetary Fund. In the survey, 57.4 percent of the 1,000 respondents said the financial crisis was the most difficult perio

The Korean economy may be decoupled from robust global economic recovery next year, held back by a slump in domestic demand and uncertainties in external conditions, economists here say.The International Monetary Fund recently revised up its global economic growth outlook for next year from 3.6 percent to 3.7 percent, while forecasting the world economy would expand 3.6 percent this year.Emerging market economies were projected to grow 4.9 percent on average in 2018, up from the 4.6 percent esti

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups launched its three-day Growth Ecosystem ScaleUp Workshop in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, on Wednesday, highlighting a new vision to revitalize the local economy and create more jobs through customized solutions. 　The workshop, which is being held at the Pullman Ambassador Changwon hotel through Friday, is led by professor Daniel Isenberg. It includes participants and key leaders from various fields including public institutions, banks, universities and r

South Korea's finance minister said Wednesday that the government will make efforts to reduce increasing labor costs that small businesses would suffer due to the government-led hike in minimum wage.President Moon Jae-in has pledged to increase the minimum wage to 10,000 won ($8.98) by 2020, as part of his efforts to narrow the income gap and boost private consumption, which may then stimulate the economy.As a first step, the government earlier decided to raise the minimum wage by 16.4 percent t

The World Trade Organization has ruled in favor of South Korea’s complaint that the United States’ anti-dumping duties against Korean steelmakers is in violation of international trade law, according to a statement by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Wednesday. 　The ruling comes nearly three years after the Korean government filed a complaint against the US arguing that its profit data calculations for dumping rate margins, which led to the US levying tariffs on oil coun

Four Samsung Electronics executives who sit on the company's board of directors received nearly 6.8 billion won ($6.08 million) in pay per person in the first three quarters of this year, the tech firm's report showed Wednesday.The CEOs, all registered members of the board, took away 27.15 billion won during the nine months, averaging 6.78 billion won each. The sum is 2.66 times more than what previous members received during the same months last year, according to the company's third-quarter re

South Korea's jobless rate dropped to the lowest level in 10 months in October, but the rate of the fall slowed down, government data showed Wednesday.The unemployment rate stood at 3.2 percent last, down 0.2 percentage point from the same month last year, according to the report compiled by Statistics Korea. From a month earlier, it also fell 0.2 percentage point.It marked the lowest rate since December last year, when it hit 3.2 percent.The number of employed people reached 26.85 million in Oc