South Korea’s low-income households in the bottom 20 percent have been hit harder by COVID-19-induced inflation than high-income households in the top 20 percent, due to a sharper surge in essential spending on food, housing and utilities than in discretionary spending, a local think tank said Monday. Between 2018-2019 and 2020-2021, consumer prices rose 2.7 percent for the bottom 20 percent, about 1.4 times more than that of the top 20 percent at 1.9 percent, according to the Korea Econo

South Korean banks are embracing artificial intelligence to better understand customers and enable them to take advantage of services more easily, as local financial institutions step up efforts to digitalize their operations. Hana Bank, one of the five major banks here, said Friday that it would use artificial intelligence to look through customer reviews in real-time so as to expand communication between customers and staff. “We see change every day in the banking industry. Getting imm

President Moon Jae-in and President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol are seen as bickering over replacing the Bank of Korea governor, whose term ends on March 31 ahead of the May inauguration day, sparking concerns of a leadership void that could add another layer of uncertainty to economic worries. The BOK, which is expected to lift the nation’s key rate in response to a rate hike by the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday, is walking a thin line between stemming currency depreciation and inflation at ho

Baek Jung-wan, new chief of Daewoo Engineering & Construction, said Wednesday that he would make worker safety a top priority as the builder seeks a synergistic alliance with parent company Jungheung Group, whose acquisition was greenlighted a month ago. “We’ll focus on our social responsibilities and to do that, the life of our workers comes first,” Baek said at an inauguration ceremony. The builder recently named a chief safety officer to ensure its safety guidelines are

Young Koreans born between 1980 and 1995, called “Gen MZ” to refer to both millennials and Generation Z, earned a little more but faced bigger debt in 2018 than people at the same age in 2000, the Bank of Korea said in a report. In 2018, Gen MZ -- aged between 23 and 38 -- earned 1.4 times more than what was earned by the same-age peers in 2000. But debts were 4.3 times greater in 2018 than 2000 among people who were identified as Gen MZ at the time. Meanwhile, &ldqu

South Korea’s leading drugmaker Celltrion saw its shares rise Monday after financial authorities had decided not to press charges for accounting fraud as long as the company pays fines, names an independent oversight board and removes the executives responsible. On Friday, the Financial Services Commission said Celltrion, Celltrion Pharm, and Celltrion Healthcare -- three listed firms that respectively develop anticancer drugs, make biopharmaceuticals, and distribute the products -- had o

Foreign holdings of South Korean shares dropped to less than one-third of the market capitalization, as the Ukraine war prompted a sell-off, data showed Sunday.　 As of Friday, foreigners held 666 trillion won ($538 billion) in Korean stocks, representing just 31.86 percent in ownership of the 2,091 trillion-won market. The lowest point of foreign ownership before was in February 2016, when the figure was 31.77. Foreign investors offloaded stocks worth a net 1.4 trillion won in January and resu

Investors are bracing themselves for a bumpy ride ahead and keeping a close watch on how President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s campaign pledges to cut capital gains tax and rein in corporate spinoffs will pan out. The president-elect, representing the conservative bloc, has proposed reversing capital gains taxes that the current liberal-leaning Moon administration has put on investors, saying removing them would help to revitalize the stock exchange. But Yoon faces an uphill battle in doing so

Markets in South Korea enjoyed short-term post-election rallies in past presidential elections, but a similar uptick looks unlikely this time, mainly because of the war in Ukraine, but also because campaign pledges have offered little to buoy investors. This would be a return to form for the democratic era. In the six months after current President Moon Jae-in was sworn in, the Kospi rose 11.2 percent to 2,542.95. But the previous four presidents going back as far as the Kim Dae-jung governme

Market bellwether Samsung Electronics, whose shares are practically held by one out of every 10 South Koreans, is suffering from heavy selling by an army of once-loyal investors disappointed over the tech giant’s underperforming shares. The stocks have slid since January to fall below 70,000 won ($56) on Tuesday in a four-month low since November. Regulatory filings, revealed Tuesday, showed some 120,000 retail investors sold shares in Samsung Electronics in the fourth quarter last year,

South Korea’s financial regulators have begun drafting contingency arrangements, such as ramping up market monitoring and readying market stabilization funds, to grapple with the impact of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, which has led the local stock market to shed 162 trillion won ($134 billion) over the last two months. “At alert level 2, we’re keeping an eye on the stock market and prepared to deploy our resources, should it need our intervention,” a source with knowledge

The benchmark Kospi rose Wednesday on stock purchases led by institutions and retail investors, who guarded against a sell-off by foreign investors, as investor appetite appeared affected little by developments in the Russia-Ukraine standoff. The Kospi ended 0.47 percent, or 12.74 points, higher than Tuesday’s closing at 2,719.53, reversing the last two days of drops. The index reached an intraday high of 2,729.56 and low of 2,705.31. Institutions and individuals snatched up shares

Market volatility escalated Tuesday on news that Russia ordered troops into separatist-held eastern Ukraine, dragging down the nation’s stock indexes as well as virtual assets and sparking concerns that the geopolitical unrest is likely to expand short-term uncertainty in the financial market. The benchmark Kospi ended lower Tuesday as investors raced to dump risky assets, falling to 2,706.79, down 1.35 percent or 37.01 points from Monday’s closing. The Kospi, which has seen i

Mounting concerns over Russia’s possible invasion of Ukraine are increasingly weighing on an already jumpy local stock market, as investors price in a full-blown geopolitical crisis that could send foreigners holding Korean shares fleeing back home. The benchmark Kospi tumbled to 2,743.80, down 0.03 percent or 0.72 points from Friday’s closing. Foreigners, whose holdings account for a little over 30 percent of all Korean stocks, and institutions were net sellers, offloading 64 billi

SillaJen, a local biotech company that was given a one-year grace period and avoided delisting in November 2020 over embezzlement accusations involving its key executives, will be put on another six-month grace period, the Korea Exchange said Friday. A 22-month trading halt that began in May 2020 will remain in place. The KRX, which decided to take the firm off from the junior Kosdaq board a month ago after the initial grace period had ended, said SillaJen will be required to prove to have live

Alert credit card companies in Korea. Biometric technology using facial, iris, voice, fingerprint and finger vein recognition could halve the current money transfer costs through credit card and mobile transactions totaling at 2.7 trillion won ($2.2 billion) annually, Boston Consulting Group said Friday in a report. “The 2.7 trillion won is an approximation of the sum of 290 million hours and 110.7 million square meters, time and space annually needed to process payments in the convention

The Korea Exchange said Thursday that it has put Osstem Implant under review to determine whether to delist the company amid a probe into a massive embezzlement scandal.  A review committee will convene a meeting in March to make a decision on whether to allow the implant maker to continue trading or grant it a one-year grace period. Listed companies are suspended from trading and face delisting if they report embezzlement exceeding 5 percent of their equity. Osstem Implant was

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki was supremely confident in November last year when he said the government would consult index provider Morgan Stanley Capital International on having the country reclassified as a developed market from its current emerging market status. The government’s drive to receive MSCI’s highest recognition is not new, as it has been pursuing it for the last 14 years. Seoul first floated the idea in 2008 to remove underlying market volatility of Asia’s four

Morgan Stanley Capital International, the world’s largest index provider, could reclassify South Korea as a developed market from the current emerging market status as early as 2024, if Seoul works to internationalize currency markets, Goldman Sachs said Monday in a report. “If Korea addresses MSCI market accessibility concerns, it could be placed on the annual review watchlist this June,” the report said, referring to a necessary step before Korea can be officially included i

Foreigners were net sellers of Korean shares in January, ending their buying spree in December last year as investor appetite soured on signals from the US Federal Reserve that it was accelerating its policy tightening measures, data showed Monday. In January, foreigners offloaded a net 1.6 trillion won ($1.3 billion) in shares, having bought 629 billion won in the benchmark Kospi market while shedding 2.3 trillion won in the junior Kosdaq. They purchased bonds of 3.6 trillion won in the same p