South Korea had the highest household debt-to-gross domestic product ratio among 36 major economies in the first quarter, a global finance report said. 　The country’s household debt-to-GDP ratio came to 104.3 percent in the January-March period, followed by Lebanon with 97.8 percent, Hong Kong with 95.3 percent, Thailand with 89.7 percent and Britain with 83.9 percent, according to data from the Institute of International Finance.  　South Korea was the only country whose household

　Samsung Electronics, South Korea’s leading tech firm, was the world‘s 22nd-largest company in terms of market capitalization, down seven notches from a year earlier, data showed. 　According to the list of the global top 100 companies released by London-based accounting company PwC, the tech giant was the only South Korean company on the list with the market value of $342 billion as of March. 　The share price of the chip giant has fallen amid global uncertainties, including moneta

　The global nuclear arsenal is expected to grow in the coming years for the first time since the Cold War while the risk of such weapons being used is the greatest in decades, a leading conflict and armaments think-tank said. 　Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Western support for Kyiv has heightened tensions among the world’s nine nuclear-armed states, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute think-tank said in a new set of research. 　Russia has the world’s bigges

　Hong Kong is the world’s most expensive city to live in as an expat for the second year in a row, according to a new study. New York and Geneva took second and third place in the rankings. 　Higher prices and a stronger currency over the past year kept the Asian city at the top of the tree, according to ECA International, which carried out its research in March this year. London and Tokyo round out the top five. 　Seoul, capital city of South Korea, stays 10th most expensive location in

　The number of executives at South Korea’s major firms expanded 4.5 percent on-year in the first quarter of the year despite the coronavirus pandemic, a corporate tracker said. 　A total of 353 leading companies in Asia’s fourth-largest economy had a combined 14,418 executives as of end-March this year, up from 13,803 a year earlier, according to the Leaders Index. 　The figure covers companies out of the country’s top 500 corporations by sales that have disclosed their first-

　International tourist arrivals tripled in the first quarter compared with the same period in 2021, with Europe leading the rebound as COVID-19 restrictions were eased, the United Nations’ tourism agency said. 　In the first three months of 2022, there were 117 million global tourist arrivals, up from 41 million in the same period a year earlier, with the figures showing an increase of 182 percent, the Madrid-based UN World Tourism Organization said.  　Although the figure remained 6

　More than 46,000 people reported losing a total of over $1 billion in cryptocurrency scams since the start of 2021, the US Federal Trade Commission said in a report. 　Nearly half the people who reported losing digital currencies in a scam said it started with an ad, post or a message on a social media platform, according to the FTC. 　The craze for cryptocurrencies was at a fever pitch last year, with bitcoin hitting a record high of $69,000 in November. 　Reports point to social media and cr

　South Korea’s trade of computers and related goods soared nearly 40 percent to reach a new all-time high in the first four months of the year amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed. 　The country’s exports and imports of computers and peripherals stood at $13.3 billion in the January-April period, up 40.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. 　Computers and peripherals include desktops, notebooks, tablets, solid state drives, memory

　The number of South Koreans who moved to different residences in the country sank to a 48-year low in April due to an aging population and fewer housing transactions, data showed. 　The number of people who changed their residences came to 483,000 last month, down 18.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. 　The tally marked the lowest for any April since 1974, when the figure marked 480,000. It was also the first time that the number had fallen below

　The number of newly adopted South Korean children fell for the third consecutive year in 2021 amid the pandemic, government data showed. 　According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the number of new child adoptees reached 415 last year, down from 704 in 2019 and 492 in 2020. Officials attributed the decrease in adoption to the effects of COVID-19. 　Among the new adoptees, 189, or 45.5 percent, were adopted by overseas families. Of those, 66.7 percent were sent to the United States. Oth

　South Korean film attendance numbers nearly shot back up to the pre-pandemic level in May, data showed, with a couple of big hits leading the charge. 　According to the Korean Film Council, movies screened in the country amassed a combined 14.55 million admissions in May, the highest monthly figure since 16.84 million from January 2020 - the last full month before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. 　The May figure was also a massive jump from just 3.21 million admissions in April. 　During the pandem

　The number of executives at South Korea’s major firms expanded 4.5 percent on-year in the first quarter of the year despite the coronavirus pandemic, a corporate tracker said. 　A total of 353 leading companies in Asia’s fourth-largest economy had a combined 14,418 executives as of end-March this year, up from 13,803 a year earlier, according to the Leaders Index. 　The figure covers companies out of the country’s top 500 corporations by sales that have disclosed their first-

　The number of births in the United States grew 1 percent in 2021 from a pandemic-related low in 2020, marking the first increase since 2014, according to a report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 　The report said that 3,659,289 babies were born last year, with the increase driven by women between 25 and 49 years. Women aged 35 to 39 accounted for the biggest rise, while the birth rate among teenagers hit a record low. 　Americans had the lowest number of babies in more th

　More than 8 out of 10 people who reported sexual harassment at the workplace said they suffered from some form of retaliation, a civic group reported.  　Gapjil 119, which campaigns against workplace abuses, announced its analysis of the 205 reports it received from abuse victims between January 2021 and March 2022. 　About 100 of the reports were from those who had filed complaints about sexual harassment to either their employer or other institutions. 　About 90 percent of them said the

　Chinese people purchased nearly 7,000 buildings in South Korea last year, with more than half of the properties being in the Greater Seoul area, a ruling party lawmaker said. 　A total of 6,640 buildings, including apartments, were purchased by Chinese nationals last year, and 2,659 of them are located in Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds the capital city of Seoul, Chung Woo-taik, a lawmaker of the ruling People Power Party, said in a report, citing the National Assembly Research Service. 　C

　The number of newly adopted South Korean children fell for the third consecutive year in 2021 amid the pandemic, government data showed. 　According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the number of new child adoptees reached 415 last year, down from 704 in 2019 and 492 in 2020. Officials attributed the decrease in adoption to the effects of COVID-19. 　Among the new adoptees, 189, or 45.5 percent, were adopted by overseas families. Of those, 66.7 percent were sent to the United States. Oth

　Smoking rates have declined globally for the first time on record, according to a new report on tobacco use from a public health campaign group and US academics. 　However, the figures from the Tobacco Atlas report - described as a potential tipping point by the authors - also mask growing numbers of smokers in parts of the world, as well as increased tobacco use among young teenagers in almost half of the countries surveyed. 　Globally, there are 1.1 billion smokers and 200 million more peopl

　Chinese people purchased nearly 7,000 buildings in South Korea last year, with more than half of the properties being in the Greater Seoul area, a ruling party lawmaker said. 　A total of 6,640 buildings, including apartments, were purchased by Chinese nationals last year, and 2,659 of them are located in Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds the capital city of Seoul, Chung Woo-taik, a lawmaker of the ruling People Power Party, said in a report, citing the National Assembly Research Service. 　C

　More than half of single 20-somethings in South Korea do not want to have babies after marriage apparently due to concerns over high child-rearing costs in the country, a poll showed.  　According to a survey reported in a monthly economic journal by the state-run Korea Development Institute, 52.4 percent of unmarried Koreans in their 20s think it is OK not to have children after tying the knot.  　The percentage is sharply up from 23.3 percent in the same survey conducted five years

　South Korea's imports of home furnishing products hit an all-time high last year on the back of demand by stay-at-home consumers amid the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed. 　The imports of eight kinds of home furnishing goods, including sofas and lamps, came to $3.5 billion last year, up 15.6 percent from a year earlier, according to data from the Korea Customs Service. 　It rose 26.1 percent from the pre-pandemic year of 2019. 　By country, inbound shipments from China were the largest with $2.