A growing number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in South Korea are turning to high-interest loans from nonbank lenders as banks tighten their loan screening, data showed Tuesday.As of end-October, outstanding SME loans from nonbank financial institutions came to 76.6 trillion won ($64.4 billion), up 31.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the data by the central Bank of Korea. The amount also marks a 2 percent increase from the previous month.The jump in high-interest lending spar

More than 35 percent of thirtysomethings in South Korea remained unmarried last year amid a widespread late marriage trend in the country, census data showed Monday.According to the 2015 census by Statistics Korea, out of 42.7 million people aged 15 or over, 13.4 million, or 31.3 percent, were single, up from 30.6 percent five years earlier.At the same time, the percentage of unmarried people in their 30s reached 36.3 percent in 2015, up 7.1 percentage points from 2010 data. The figure has been

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co., South Korea's leading power equipment maker, said Monday it has signed a 1 trillion-won ($842 million) deal to build a power plant in Saudi Arabia.Under the deal with the state-run Saudi Electric Co., a Doosan Heavy-led consortium will build the 1,519-megawatt (MW) power plant, in the Fadhili gas-processing plant, located 85 kilometers north of Jubail Port, by November 2019, the company said.Doosan Heavy said its orders for the year may top 9 trillion

The amount of payments made electronically hit a record quarterly high in the third quarter, central bank data showed Monday, in the latest sign that a growing number of South Koreans are using electronic means for financial transactions.The daily average amount of electronic financial transactions came to 363.1 billion won ($306 million) in the July-September period, up 12.8 percent from the previous quarter, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).The Q3 reading marks an increase fr