South Korea's central bank chief left for Washington on Wednesday to discuss pending economic issues with his counterparts from the world's major economies, the Bank of Korea said.BOK Governor Lee Ju-yeol is scheduled to attend the G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors' meeting on Thursday and Friday, the central bank said.It said Lee plans to hold talks with his counterparts and finance ministers on such issues as how to establish a cooperative system for sustainable and balanced de

South Korea's producer prices fell slightly in March from a month earlier due mainly to a decline in the prices of manufactured goods, the central bank said Wednesday.The producer price index -- a barometer of future consumer inflation -- slid 0.1 percent in March from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea. The BOK attributed the fall to weaker oil prices and the won's strengthening against the US dollar.Prices of Dubai crude, South Korea's benchmark, fell 5.9 percent in March from a m

South Korean businesses are likely to hire fewer people this year than in 2016 amid the ongoing economic slump, a survey showed Tuesday.The survey of 258 companies with more than 100 employees conducted by the Korean Employers Federation said those polled planned to employ 6.6 percent less this year than last year.The companies plan to recruit 7.3 percent fewer college graduates and reduce the number of hirees with high school diplomas by 7.9 percent compared to the year before.Of those surveyed

Workers in their 20s and 30s spend an average of 14,800 won ($12.9) daily, with unmarried workers spending more than those who are married, according to a survey conducted by JobKorea Tuesday. The job search portal recently surveyed 2,427 workers, who are in their 20s and 30s, and asked nine questions regarding their daily expenses during work hours. Of the total 2,427 workers, 1,320 people were married and 1,107 were unmarried. The survey found that the average daily spending of unmarried

South Korea‘s daily traffic volume increased 17.4 percent from 10 years ago as of last year, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Tuesday.The data was collected by counting vehicles passing through select sections on highways and major roads. The number of registered vehicles reached 21.80 million in 2016, from 20.99 million in 2015.Price of gasoline, meanwhile, declined from 1,405 won ($1.23) per liter in 2015 to 1,293 won the following year.Passenger cars accounte

US Vice President Mike Pence’s official remarks that Washington would review the 5-year-old bilateral trade deal between South Korea and the US may be only confined to a partial review of trade terms in certain industries, experts said Tuesday.Earlier in the day, Pence said the US trade deficit with Korea has more than doubled in the five years since the Korea-US free trade agreement began in 2012.“That’s the hard truth,” the visiting vice president said during a speech a

A state-run think tank on Tuesday revised up its 2017 growth forecast for the South Korean economy by 0.2 percentage point to 2.6 percent thanks to a recovery in the world economy and an upturn in exports."We raised the forecast for the 2017 economy to 2.6 percent as exports improved at a faster-than-expected clip on the back of recovered global demand, and with investments likely to maintain its upbeat pace," Kim Seong-tae, a senior researcher at the Korea Development Institute (KDI),

Health care spending of South Korean families jumped 10.7 percent last year from a year earlier, the central bank said Tuesday, due apparently to a rise in senior citizens.Health care expenses of households came to 41.03 trillion won ($36.1 billion) last year, up 3.9 trillion won from 2015, according to data compiled by the Bank of Korea. It marked the first time that total spending surpassed the 40 trillion-won mark.The ratio of health care costs to expenses of households accounted for 5.5. per

South Korea's central bank said Tuesday that global trade is expected to expand by 3.1 percent this year on an economic recovery in the United States and other major economies.The Bank of Korea said the US economy is forecast to grow by 2.2 percent, while the Chinese and Japanese economies are expected to expand by 6.5 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively. The economic recovery in the US and other major countries could give a boost to world trade.As global raw material transactions start to ris

Most big name companies reduced the size of their workforce last year, affecting contracted workers the most, corporate analysis showed Tuesday.Eighty-seven listed firms affiliated with the top 10 business groups were surveyed by conglomerate tracker FnGuide, with additional information provided by the Data Analysis, Retrieval and Transfer system (DART) service under the Financial Supervisory Service. The results showed the companies had 629,517 employees as of the end of last year, 2.29 percent

South Korean exports by "new growth" businesses rose an average of 5 percent annually in the past four years, a local trade report said Monday.Exports by companies whose businesses range from robotics, semiconductors, next-generation displays and bio health to aerospace jumped to $76.7 billion in 2016 from $63.2 billion in 2012, the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) said in a recent report.  This is in contrast to the average 2.5 percent decline in the country's overall

A potential trade tussle between the US and China will have the South Korean economy suffer a decline in its growth rate due to its higher trade dependency on the neighbor, a report said Monday."Having subsided after the global financial crisis, trade protectionism is once again gaining momentum, raising concerns over the negative impact on the highly trade-dependent Korean economy," the report said released by the state-run Korea Development Institution. The report cited that the numb

Cautious optimism on a rebound in the Korean economy seems still shrouded by lingering downside risks at home and abroad.The Bank of Korea’s recent revision of its growth outlook for this year to 2.6 percent from the previous forecast of 2.5 percent bolstered the view that Asia’s fourth-largest economy may be bottoming out to enter the recovery stage. The central bank’s revised growth projection is on par with forecasts by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the International

The Bank of Korea will move its headquarters to a building in central Seoul and its office in the Gangnam district of Seoul late next month as its headquarters will undergo a three-year renovation project, bank officials said Monday. The renovation project, which will be completed by the first half of 2020 and include the reconstruction of the main annex building, aims to bolster the headquarters' security and safety, BOK officials said.  It will mark the first time the central bank, as wel

The number of unpaid male workers employed at their family businesses rose sharply in recent months, government data showed Monday, as more people are trying to cope with the protracted economic slump."The surge in the number appears to be linked to a growing number of self-employed people," a Statistics Korea official said. The number jumped 11.7 percent, or 16,000, to 150,000 in the first three months this year from a year earlier, according to the official tally.The rise is the shar