SEJONG -- South Korea on Monday outlined an 11.2 trillion-won ($9.99 billion) extra budget plan to create jobs and fuel the recent recovery momentum in the economy.The supplementary budget -- the first since President Moon Jae-in took office last month -- was approved at a Cabinet meeting. The budget proposal, just a fraction of the 400 trillion-won state budget for fiscal 2017, is set to be submitted to the National Assembly on Wednesday for approval. The extra budget is a follow-up to Moo

South Korea's current account surplus rose slightly in April from a year earlier on an increased surplus in the goods account, central bank data showed Monday.The country's current account surplus reached $4 billion in April, compared with a surplus of $3.76 billion tallied a year ago, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea. The figure represents a surplus for 62 months in a row. The current account is the biggest measure of cross-border trade.The BOK said the goods account sur

South Korea's foreign exchange reserves hit a record high in May due to a hike in the value of non-dollar currencies when converted into the US greenback, central bank data showed Monday.As of the end of May, the country's foreign exchange reserves came to $378.46 billion, up $1.89 billion from the previous month, the Bank of Korea said in a statement.Foreign exchange reserves consist of securities and deposits denominated in overseas currencies, as well as International Monetary Fund reserve po

President Moon Jae-in’s chief secretary for economic policies said Sunday that the government’s planned 10 trillion won ($9 billion) supplementary budget would help reduce inequality.Jang Ha-sung, the chief presidential secretary for economic policies, called the budget a “timely and effective” tool to resolve South Korea’s deepening economic polarization, stressing that the nation’s export-driven growth had failed to create more jobs.

With this year marking Korea‘s 10th anniversary since the country entered into the free trade agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, South Korea‘s investment among ASEAN accounts for only five percent of total foreign direct investments, according to a recent report by EY Rediscover ASEAN.As a global accounting and consulting firm, EY Rediscover ASEAN’s report found that Korea’s investment in Southeast Asian member nations accounted for five percent of

The cancellation of the free trade agreement between Seoul and Washington will be more detrimental to US companies than their South Korean counterparts, a local think tank said Sunday.According to the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, if the South Korea-US pact is nullified by the Donald Trump administration, American companies that ship goods to South Korea will be required to pay more import duties, while local companies will be affected less. "If the two-way FTA is scra

South Korea's latest economic gains do not indicate that the country's financial condition is on a firm track, as the increases can be attributed to investment in the construction sector and not improvements in private consumption, a research showed Sunday.Hyundai Research Institute said in a report that South Korea's economic growth depends excessively on construction, while private consumption, which takes up 50 percent of the country's gross domestic product, only had a limited impact on the

South Korea's small and medium enterprises have high hopes for the new Moon Jae-in administration as they struggle with difficult times, industry sources said Sunday.The Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business, or K-Biz, said its Chairman Park Sung-taek met with 25 regional SME business representatives in Yeosu, 455 kilometers south of Seoul, and exchanged views on the state of the regional economy.  "Business leaders said at the gathering on Saturday that while export figures we

South Korea’s gross domestic product grew faster than expected in the first three months of this year, mainly due to stronger construction and exports, the Bank of Korea said Friday.Asia’s fourth-largest economy grew 1.1 percent in the first quarter from the previous quarter, the central bank said, updating seasonally-adjusted data from the previous estimate of 0.9 percent.The 1.1 percent quarterly growth was the fastest in six quarters, driven mainly by the private sector, not the g

Nearly half of South Korea's top 30 family-controlled conglomerates slashed their workforces in 2016 from a year earlier, data showed Friday, amid unfavorable market conditions at home and abroad.The combined workforce of the 30 leading business groups came to 1,305,939 as of the end of last year, down 1.1 percent, or 15,069, from a year earlier, according to the data from market tracker Chaebul.com.Of the total conglomerates known as chaebol here, Samsung, Hyundai Heavy Industries, POSCO, LG an

Last month‘s consumer prices surged by 2 percent compared to the same month in the previous year, with livestock products showing the biggest increase at 11.6 percent, data by Statistics Korea showed Thursday.Consumer prices have been hovering around 2 percent since the first month of this year due to a sharp gain in oil prices. The latest upward trend in prices is also largely driven by higher meat and egg prices, with eggs surging 67.9 percent in the aftermath of an outbreak of avian inf

As political and economic woes continue to unfold regarding the deployment of an anti-missile system here and US President Donald Trump’s pending renegotiation of the Korea-US free trade agreement, the US Congressional Research Service predicted continued uncertainty for the future economic and political bilateral alliance. “Between 2009 and the end of 2016, relations between the two countries arguably reached their most robust state in decades. Political changes in both countries in

In an effort to explore methods to utilize big data to achieve sustainable development, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and Statistics Korea have organized a forum on innovative data approaches from Wednesday to Friday in Songdo, Incheon.  “In the information age, data is our most valuable currency,” said Kilaparti Ramakrishna, director and head of the ESCAP East and North-East Asia Office, in a press release by ESCAP on Wednesday. &ldq

South Korea’s global competitiveness ranking remained low at 29 among 63 countries in 2017, hit by a political scandal that rocked the nation last year, weak exports and fine dust, a report by an international institute showed Thursday.According to the International Institute for Management Development, a Switzerland-based private business school, Korea’s global competitiveness ranked at No. 29 in 2017, the lowest since 2008 when the economy was 31st. Among 14 countries in the Asia-P

The US Federal Reserve could raise its interest rate four times this year if the economy strengthens, a senior Fed official said Thursday.John C. Williams, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said that three rate increases this year is a reasonable baseline view, but there is potential for upside occurrences in the economy. "I could imagine if the economy strengthens, four rate increases this year would be appropriate," Williams said in a news conference in