Customers visit Food Dream, a food store launched by convenience store chain 7-Eleven in July 2019.  Compared with conventional stores, Food Dream has recorded double the sales in the food category since its launch, 7-Eleven said Tuesday. (khnews@heraldcorp.com)

Household debt in South Korea equaled 95.1 percent of the country’s gross domestic product as of the third quarter last year, up 3.9 percentage points from a year earlier, data from the Institute of International Finance showed earlier this week. The debt-to-GDP ratio was growing at the second fastest pace among the surveyed 33 countries and eurozone, the data also showed. Corporate debt totaled 101.6 percent of the GDP, rising by 6.3 percentage points from the previous year. It was the

A majority of the public opposes the release of former President Park Geun-hye, who has been detained for nearly three years now after a corruption scandal took down her presidency in 2017, a poll finds. According to local pollster Realmeter on Monday, which conducted the survey of 503 adults nationwide, some 56 percent of respondents voiced opposition to Park’s early release. Slightly less than 40 percent supported the idea, while 4.6 percent chose neither answer. People in the count

A cold snap is expected to grip South Korea on Tuesday, sending morning lows to around minus 5 degrees Celsius in Seoul and below minus 10 degrees in some other areas, the weather agency said Monday. The Korea Meteorological Administration expects to issue cold weather advisories for mountainous regions in Gangwon and North Gyeongsang provinces at around 11 p.m. Monday, as icy air from Siberia moves toward the Korean Peninsula. Snow is in the forecast Tuesday for the northern parts of Gyeon

The Australian Chamber of Commerce in Korea named Pepper Savings Bank business of the year during the Australia-Korea Business Awards 2020, held Friday in Seoul. PSB, a unit of Australia’s Pepper Group and the only Australian savings bank operating here, was recognized for its efforts to provide loans to small and medium-sized enterprises and create jobs in the North and South Jeolla provinces and Gyeonggi Province, the organizer said. The annual awards presentation also honored other

In March 2016, Koreans were stunned by the match between Alpha Go, an artificial intelligence program, and Lee Se-dol, a world-renowned Go champion. In many ways, the match marked a turning point in public perception of AI here. Domestic industrial applications of AI rose, including in the medical sphere. This is an encouraging phenomenon, but without proper intervention, it may be too late to catch up with the US and China, which have more mature ecosystems of AI research and commercialization

For years, a conflict has been brewing between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the European People’s Party, the supranational organization of Christian Democratic and center-right parties in European Union member states. After much hesitation, the EPP suspended Orban’s party, Fidesz, last March, and is now deciding whether to expel it. It has plenty of good reasons for doing so. Fidesz has not only dismantled democracy and the rule of law in Hungary, but also demonized the

This year marked the 50th anniversary of the World Economic Forum’s flagship meeting of the world’s business and political elites in Davos, Switzerland. Much has changed since my first Davos in 1995. Back then, there was euphoria over globalization, hope for ex-communist countries’ transition to the market, and confidence that new technologies would open up new vistas from which all would benefit. Businesses, working with government, would lead the way. Today, with the world f

While South Korea’s exports failed to rebound from a minus figure in January, the daily average exports showed an upturn for the first time in 14 months, raising hopes for an overall recovery. The government has forecast the exports to rebound to a plus from this month, although such a projection remains questionable with the impact of the new coronavirus outbreak that is seen to affect sales and production both domestically and globally. According to data from the Ministry of Trade, exp

North Korea appears to be making an all-out effort to prevent an influx of the new coronavirus from China and has expressed its condolences to the country, which is the isolated North’s No. 1 ally, trade partner and immediate neighbor. Multiple Chinese newspapers reported Sunday that President Xi Jinping received a letter of condolence from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un about the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus that has killed over 300 people in China. On Saturday, the North&rsqu

The father of two children who were airlifted from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the new coronavirus outbreak, voluntarily checked into the quarantine center in Asan to look after the kids, authorities said Sunday. The children, aged 8 and 10, were among the hundreds of Korean residents who were flown in from the city in Hubei province on Jan. 31 and are currently staying in isolation at two locations. Their mother could not accompany them for the trip because of her Chinese nationality. A

Since he was elected US president, Donald Trump has done almost everything standard economic wisdom regards as heresy. He has erected trade barriers and stoked uncertainty with threats of further tariffs. He has blackmailed private businesses. He has eased prudential standards for banks. He has time and again attacked the Federal Reserve for policy not to his liking. He increased the budget deficit even as the economy was nearing full capacity. On a policymaker’s “Don’t Do&rdqu