Apartment prices in South Korea on average grew nearly three times faster than current household income over four years under the previous administration, data showed Sunday. The price of jeonse -- referring to deposits for a two-year lease of a house instead of monthly payments -- also rose sixfold compared to income over the cited four years. The average current monthly household income rose ...

SEOGWIPO, Jeju Province -- The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank may finance infrastructure projects for North Korea, if its board of directors agree to it, the head of the China-led multinational lender said Saturday. According to the bank’s articles of agreement, it will invest in its member countries, and whether there is any need or necessity to invest in a nonmember country is the decisi...

Loans taken out to finance facility expansions reached an all-time high in March, in line with a recovery in exports and the global economy, data showed Sunday. According to the data compiled by the Bank of Korea, facility loans reached a record 404.87 trillion won ($356 billion) as of end-March, up 9.21 trillion won from the end of last year. From a year ago, the figure also swelled by 42.39 t...

Led by memory chips, petrochemical products and machineries, South Korea's exports to China increased in April for the sixth consecutive month despite Beijing's apparent import restrictions over a diplomatic row, according to data released Sunday. The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) said that the nation's shipments to the neighbor country jumped 10.2 percent in the month from one...

The export of South Korean chickens has effectively come to a halt this year, apparently hit by the spread of avian influenza, government data showed Saturday. The outbound shipment of chickens reached only 139 tons between January and May, down 98.8 percent on-year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. It means the country's chicken exports have virtually been susp...

China has been striving to take the lead in reshaping regional and global economic governance by creating a fresh network that connects Eurasia and South Pacific through a multilateral development financing institution, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. In 2013, China’s President Xi Jinping expressed the country’s aim to leverage and realize its centerpiece foreign policy, the “One Belt,...

President Moon urges sustainable, people-focused investment

The rebidding to lease out the remaining duty-free store license for Incheon International Airport's new passenger terminal fell through again due to a lack of tenders, the transportation hub operator said Friday. The license bidding to run an apparel and accessories store in the second terminal failed for the sixth time with Shinsegae DF as the only company taking part in the auction, according...

South Korea's won currency is likely to remain steady for the time being, despite US Federal Reserve's move to tighten its monetary policy, analysts here said Friday. The won has risen 6.9 percent against the US dollar so far this year, and the local currency market showed a muted reaction after the Fed raised interest rates by 25 basis points as expected. The won's strength was mainly due to t...

South Korea's export prices fell slightly in May from a month earlier due to the strong won and a drop in oil prices, central bank data showed Friday. In local currency terms, overall export prices fell 1 percent month-on-month in May, according to preliminary data provided by the Bank of Korea. Still, year-on-year, export prices jumped 5.3 percent last month, marking the seventh consecutive mon...

Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon held talks on Thursday with Jin Liqun, president of a Chinese-led regional lender, during which the two sides agreed to step up cooperation, officials said. The talks between Kim and Jin were held a day before the annual meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in South Korea's southern island of Jeju. During the meeting, Kim told Jin that South ...

Lee Dong-geol, chairman and CEO of the Korea Development Bank I extend my warm congratulations to the 2017 Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank Annual Meeting to be held in Jeju from Friday to Sunday. Under the theme of sustainable infrastructure, the meeting will be an opportunity for all participants to engage in finding solutions for the balanced development and shared growth of Asia, and dr...