The government proposed a 3 percent increase in its 2016 budget formulation from this year to continue to push for an expansionary economic policy next year despite concerns over worsening fiscal soundness.The Finance Ministry said Tuesday that the budget proposal reflects the administration’s full-fledged effort to invigorate sagging private consumption and exports.The budget scheme, which is to be proposed before the National Assembly on Sept. 11, amounts to 386.7 trillion won ($322.2 billion)

 South Korea’s currency further weakened Monday ahead of the interest rate-setting meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, slated for Sept. 16-17 in Washington, D.C.Amid the growing investor sentiment toward non-risky assets, the U.S. dollar and Japanese yen showed stronger position against the Korean won.The dollar rose by 10.8 won from a trading session before to close at 1,204.2. The won fell to its cheapest versus the greenback in more than five years. Currency dealers look at indices

 South Korea’s stock market weathered the overnight plunges of equities on the European and U.S. bourses, despite the aggravated concerns about possible global deflation from China’s economic slowdown.The KOSPI gained 0.99 points or 0.05 percent from a trading session earlier to close at 1,915.22 on Wednesday, though the benchmark index started in a bearish position earlier in the day.While some analysts claimed the Korean index is considered to have hit the bottom in late August, others say the

In the early 2000s, Korean tourists to Turkey saw a foreign exchange rate of 1 million won to about 1.3 billion lira.When it comes to South Korea’s economic scale, its won-denominated gross domestic product is estimated at about 1.6 quadrillion won last year, or 1,600,000,000,000,000 won. Its outstanding household debt, fully written out in the local currency, is 1,100,000,000,000,000 won.Inbound tourists can sometimes get confused by the multiple-unit conversions such as thousands of dollars to

South Korea’s Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan dismissed Wednesday market analysis that the nation’s stock market was showing signs of being coupled with that of China, whose index recently plummeted.His refutation came a day after China’s monetary policymakers cut the country’s benchmark interest rate to shore up its economy. Later in the day, shares on the Shanghai bourse lost ground again. Though the domestic market is being affected by concerns over China’s slowdown, the recent synchronizati

North Korea on Tuesday expressed regret over a recent land mine blast in the Demilitarized Zone and resulting injuries on South Korean soldiers and agreed to lift the “quasi-war state” in return for Seoul’s conditional revocation of anti-Pyongyang broadcasts. The two Koreas also agreed to hold formal talks to improve their relations in Seoul or Pyongyang “at an early date” and working-level discussions in early September to arrange reunions of separated families in time for the upcoming Chuseok