The South Korean government said Monday it recovered 709.1 billion won ($633 million) of bailout funds in the second quarter, mostly used to help financial institutions hit by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The retrieval of taxpayers' money mainly derived from dividends from stake investments, the sale of shares in Woori Bank, and interest income, the Financial Services Commission said in a statement. The government has spent a total of 168.7 trillion won since November 1997 to purchase non-pe

Amid soaring apartment prices, data showed Monday that management fees for apartment residents in South Korea have risen roughly 24 percent over the past five years. 　According to data from the Bank of Korea and Statistics Korea, the housing price index for apartment living increased to 108.68 in the second quarter, a 24.3 percent increase from 87.4 in 2012. The jump is about quadruple the 6.3 percent consumer price index inflation rate. 　By the end of July, housing management fees rose 3.8 perc

The central bank said Monday it will issue 2,000 won ($1.77) denominated paper notes to commemorate South Korea's hosting of its first Winter Olympics.The Bank of Korea will issue 2.3 million notes of the bill on Nov. 17, according to officials. While big events have often been celebrated with commemorative coins, this is the first time that paper money will be issued. Officials said the PyeongChang Olympics organizing committee had requested paper bills. PyeongChang, a mountainous resort city e

Seoul’s price to income ratio for housing this year was ranked 23rd among 267 major cities in the world, according to Numbeo, a global database of user contributed data on cities and countries. This was visibly lower than the figure in the Great China Region such as Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.The PIR value for South Korea’s capital was 19.17, which means that it would take an average citizen the corresponding number of years save up to purchase a house.The most expens

Concerns over North Korean provocations and jittery economic indicators is expected nudge South Korea's central bank to freeze key rates for the foreseeable future, market watchers said Sunday.The predictions come as the Bank of Korea is set to convene a Monetary Policy Committee this week to deliberate the country's key rates.Initially, there was speculation that some members of the committee will express views of marking up rates in the future to reflect improvements in the overall economy fue

Guy Ryder, director-general of the International Labor Organization, plans to visit South Korea next month to attend a forum on labor, the Seoul city government said Sunday.It said Ryder plans to deliver a keynote speech at the forum on job-creation strategy and labor policy to be hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government on Sept. 5-6. The forum will bring together officials from 10 cities including New York and London and representatives from eight international organizations, it said.Ryder t

South Korean companies should find business opportunities in China's fast-growing consumer goods market that so far has been tapped mostly by cosmetic firms, an economic think tank said Sunday.A report from the Hyundai Research Institute estimated China's high-end consumer goods imports market to grow to $37 billion by 2020 as the population surpasses 1.4 billion and the per capita gross domestic product hops over $20,000 by then. The market already ranked 10th globally last year with $26.6 bill

The financial regulator will conduct inspections this week of five leading securities firms that want to start investment banking business, focusing on how well they can manage their electronic system for issuing promissory notes, officials said Sunday.The Financial Supervisory Service will look into the business plan, personnel structure and IT management of Mirae Asset Daewoo, NH Investment & Securities Co., KB Securities Co., Samsung Securities Co. and Korea Investment & Securities Co

South Korea's central bank is likely to hold its key rates steady this month as soft economic growth and subdued inflation will allow it to sit on the sidelines, 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 all-time low rate of 1.25 percent."Further interest rate cuts are firmly off the cards despite below-potential growth," Moody's Analytics said in an economic preview, not

The employment rate of South Korean women in their 30s hit a record high in the first half of this year, data showed Saturday, as the government has taken a series of measures to bring stay-at-home moms back to work.Statistics Korea said the employment rate of women in their 30s stood at 59.2 percent, the highest half-year figure since 1999 when the statistics office began compiling relevant data. The employment rate of women in their 30s has been on the rise in recent years as women delay marri

South Korea's key consumer sentiment index fell slightly in August from a month earlier due mainly to heightened tensions between North Korea and the United States, a central bank survey showed Friday.The composite consumer sentiment index for August came to 109.9, down from 111.2 a month earlier, according to the survey by the Bank of Korea. A reading above 100 means optimists outnumber pessimists.Tensions have spiked on the Korean Peninsula as North Korea and the United States exchanged bellic

The government's anti-smoking campaign, funded partly by increased revenue from a cigarette price hike, has not been effective, officials said Friday.Monthly cigarette sales in January 2015, when the price of cigarettes was raised 80 percent from 2,500 won ($2.21) to 4,500 won, were 295 million packs. Currently, monthly sales are close to300 million packs, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Assembly Budget Office.Part of the revenue from the hike cigarette price was

Cheong Wa Dae announced on Thursday that President Moon Jae-in has named Park Seong-jin as the head of the new Ministry of SME and Startups. 　Park is a professor of engineering from Pohang University of Science and Technology and also serves as the CEO of Postech Holdings. 　　The new minster nominee is scheduled to attend a confirmation hearing led by a parliamentary committee before his appointment becomes official. Parliamentary approval is not required for Park’s appointment. 　The new Mi

Amid ambiguity hovering over future negotiations on the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement, Speaker of the Korean National Assembly Chung Sye-Kyun on Thursday defended the agreement as a win-win bedrock of Korea-US relations that must be negotiated wisely so as not to disrupt more than six decades of strong bilateral ties. During a general membership meeting with the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, or AmCham, at Lotte Hotel in Seoul, Chung stressed the importance of continuing the strong polit

The number of South Koreans expected to travel abroad is set to be twice that of foreigners visiting the country this year amid a sharp drop in the arrival of Chinese nationals, a state-run tourism agency said Thursday.The January-July tally showed that some 7.76 million foreigners came to South Korea, down 20.9 percent from the same period last year, according to the Korea Tourism Organization. The number of outbound South Koreans stood at over 15 million during the same months. The last time t