Overseas card spending by South Koreans hit a record high in the first quarter due to a hike in the number of people going overseas, the central bank said Thursday. In the January-March period, overseas card spending amounted to $4.02 billion, up 21.9 percent from $3.3 billion a year earlier, according to the Bank of Korea BOK. From a month earlier, the Q1 tally marked a 7.4-percent increase. O...

South Korea's financial regulator on Wednesday eased penalties against the nation's top three life insurers over unpaid suicide insurance benefits. Kyobo Life Insurance was ordered to halt operations for one month, while Samsung Life Insurance and Hanwha Life Insurance received a warning and were both banned from making inroads into new businesses for one year, the Financial Services Commission ...

Middle-aged South Koreans who live with or support their parents financially feel the heaviest burden when bearing their medical bills, but some saw it as a duty that has to be fulfilled even if means getting loans or giving up on their own savings, a survey said Wednesday. In the poll of 1,000 people in their 40s and 50s who have experience supporting their parents, 48.1 percent answered doing ...

Buoyed by rising international oil prices, South Korea’s export and import prices each surged by 0.5 percent in April compared to the previous month, the Bank of Korea said Wednesday. The provisional import price for April was 81.79 (based on the standard of 100 in 2010, in local currency terms), showing the first increase in three months. The rise in import price, which is reflected in consume...

New industries such as electric and autonomous vehicles, smart ships and robots will create some 380,000 new jobs, a report by the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy showed Wednesday. In the report released at a forum of experts, academics and businesses, the ministry said such jobs will be created by 2025 from 12 sectors it designated as new industries last year. The forum was held on t...

South Korea’s per capita gross national income has remained below $30,000 for more than a decade since it surpassed the $20,000 mark for the first time in 2006. A survey conducted by a local pollster days before the May 9 presidential election showed most people here are pessimistic about the possibility of their country passing what is regarded as the threshold for joining the club of wealthy a...

South Korea's export prices hit a record eight year high in April due to strong demand for electric and electronic products as well as petrochemicals, central bank data showed Wednesday. In local currency terms, export prices rose 8.7 percent on year last month, according to preliminary data provided by the Bank of Korea. The dollar came to an average of 1,132.73 won in April, down 0.2 percent ...

Hit by the prolonged slump, South Korean shipbuilders and related businesses cut 8,670 or 14.8 percent of their workforce last year, data by industry tracker Chaebul.com showed Tuesday. The data based on 2016 business reports from 1,831 listed firms showed that their combined workforce reached 1.51 million at the end of last year, down 5,915, or 0.4 percent, from a year ago. Samsung Group slash...

Overseas card spending by South Koreans rose 65 percent during the "golden" holiday period in May from a year earlier, data showed Tuesday. The data compiled by KB Kookmin Card Co. showed that purchases made by its credit and debit card customers in foreign countries amounted to 25.4 billion won ($22.7 million) during the April 29-May 9 holiday period, compared with 15.4 billion won from the sam...

The Korea International Trade Association announced Monday that it plans to send a special economic mission to the United States in June, the first such visit to be made since US President Donald Trump took office in January. The 10-strong envoy group, which KITA Chairman Kim In-ho represents, will visit Washington DC and New York City during the five-day trip that kicks off on June 6. The grou...

One out of every five employees working in South Korea work 54 hours a week or longer, Statistics Korea‘s data showed Monday. While the average working hours continued to drop since the introduction of a five-day workweek in 2004, the weekly working hours have remained stagnantly long since 2010. The data comes in light of new President Moon Jae-in’s pledge to share jobs by reducing working hou...

Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed the importance of improving South Korea-China relations during his meeting with a South Korean delegation visiting the country, the South Korean chief of the delegation said Monday. On the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, the delegation led by Rep. Park Byeong-seug, a veteran politician with close ties to President Moon Jae...

South Korea's trade promotion agency said Monday it is hosting an event in Seoul this week to promote economic ties with Cuba. In the five-day-long 2017 Cuba Week in Korea that runs through Friday, government officials and business leaders from the two countries will discuss possible ties in the financial, energy and medical fields, the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency said in a statement...

In his second week as Korea’s new president, Moon Jae-in faces an uphill battle in the global trade arena, as he has to mend fences with the nation’s major trading partner, the US. One of the biggest economic issues in the domestic trade industry is US President Donald Trump’s vow to renegotiate the terms of the five-year Korea-US FTA. He has referred to the deal as “horrible.” The KORUS FTA ha...

South Korea's household loans extended by banks rose 9.8 percent in April from a year earlier due to increased mortgages, central bank data showed Monday. Outstanding household loans from lenders came to 718.6 trillion won ($637 billion) as of end-April, compared with 654.3 trillion won from a year earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea. Compared with March, the amount rose by 4....