Korea’s financial regulator said it plans to tighten inspections of capital flows this year to improve the soundness of its foreign-currency market.“There are persisting destabilizing factors in the global financial markets following the Group of 20 meeting, such as volatile capital movements and currency wars among major countries,” the Financial Supervisory Service said Monday in an e-mailed sta

Korea Express Co., Korea’s largest logistics firm, said Monday that it is seeking to post 2.35 trillion won ($2.09 billion) in sales this year, up around 10 percent from last year.The company is also targeting an operating income of 157 billion won in 2011.Last year, Korea Express was estimated to have logged an operating income of 130 billion won on sales of 2.16 trillion won.Major shareholders o

LG Chem Ltd. said on Sunday that its battery technology was not part of information suspected to have been leaked by Renault SA officials. An official at the Korean company said that the three officials at the French carmaker who are accused of leaking Renault's secrets didn't have access to LG Chem's battery technology.  "The officials are not involved in the LG Chem-related business and Renault'

The average number of credit cards held by Koreans hit a record high last year thanks to a well-established payment system and improving economic conditions, a report showed Sunday.A total of 114.94 million cards had been issued by the end of the third quarter of last year, according to the report by the Credit Finance Association. Given that the number of economically active people totaled 24.99

The Bank of Korea’s top policy priority this year will be to stabilise inflation, while adjusting monetary policy in view of the global economic situation, the central bank said Thursday.Separately, the Finance Ministry pledged to make an effort “on all fronts” to curb price pressures, at a time when surging oil and commodities prices are fanning inflation expectations around the region.The govern

Korea kimchi exports rose 10 percent on-year to $98.4 million last year thanks to solid overseas demand for the spicy fermented side dish, the government said Thursday.The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said the outbound shipment total was the second-highest annual figure after the $102.7 million reported for 2004.The annual increase is noteworthy because problems in supply

Korea’s stock market lured nearly 30 percent of foreign equity funds poured into emerging Asian countries last year, becoming the second-biggest investment destination after India, a report showed Thursday.Foreign investors bought a net $18.9 billion of domestic shares in 2010, representing 29.7 percent of the total $63.9 billion in foreign net purchases among seven key emerging markets in the Asi

Korea has effectively halted imports of German pork and poultry products after high levels of dioxin were discovered, the government said Thursday.The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said it has confirmed recent media reports that dioxin, a toxic compound that can damage the human immune system and cause cancer, has been detected in pork, poultry meat, eggs and animal feed m

China boosted its holdings of Korean bonds last month even as lawmakers in Seoul reinstated a tax on interest income from debt securities. China’s net purchases of Korean Treasury notes totaled 444 billion won ($395 million), 23 percent more than in December 2009, the Financial Supervisory Service said Thursday. The addition more than tripled China’s holdings of Korean fixed-income securities to 6

Government intervention to control rising food and necessities prices should be resisted, the head of a South Korean free market think tank said Wednesday.Center for Free Enterprise head Kim Chung-ho said that any government attempts to micro-manage prices of food and other necessities were destined to fail and were more characteristic of a “command economy.”Food prices surged more than 33 percent