Korea is rapidly losing its luster as a competitive and innovative economy in the world as the country continues to slide in international growth rankings.The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook showed that Korea’s ranking in terms of gross domestic product growth fell 60 levels over the last two years, dropping to 117th place out of 189 countries last year.Korea grew 2 percent in 2012, and is expected to face a ranking standstill this year as it is projected to have a similar grow

Pernod Ricard Korea is looking to overtake its main competitor Diageo Korea in Korea’s whiskey market with an all-new look for the French distilled beverage giant’s flagship “Imperial” brand.The Korean unit’s CEO Jean-Manuel Spriet said Wednesday that it has renewed Imperial’s design in a diamond-like shape with anti-forgery features embedded in its bottle caps with the aim of “closing the gap” with its rival in Korea. The key strategy to grab a bigger slice of the market, despite the whiskey do

The National Tax Service said Tuesday that it launched an additional probe into 10 people who allegedly evaded taxes by setting up paper companies abroad.This brings the total to 28 people currently under scrutiny by the tax auditor that is tracking down tax evasion via ghost companies.The NTS has so far levied additional taxes worth 71.4 billion won ($65.2 million) against 11 people who were found to have not reported their tax-haven deposits to the authority since the beginning of the second h

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles scrutinizing key aspects and sectors related to the creative economy the Park Geun-hye government is promoting as a national agenda. The series will feature interviews with top government officials and IT gurus, and strategies to embody the policy. The special articles were made in cooperation with the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. This is the fourth part of the creative economy ser

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Ministry of Employment and Labor are in the process of reviewing and redrafting their public sector employment road map to come up with new ways to assess the job market, government officials said.This comes as the government seeks greater accuracy in projections for job creation at public agencies, institutions and companies as it sets out to achieve an employment rate of 70 percent over the next four years.Job creation, along with the development of

Korea’s fiscal deficit widened to a record high in the first half of this year due to frontloaded spending and decreased tax revenue amid the economic slowdown, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said Friday.The central government’s fiscal account, excluding social security funds such as pension and employment insurance, posted a deficit of 46.2 trillion won ($41.7 billion) in the first half of 2013, the worst on record.It had a deficit of about 30 trillion won a year ago, and 19.2 trillion wo

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said Wednesday that it plans to increase the supply of public housing to tame the rising prices of jeonse apartments, and expand tax deductions on monthly rent payments.The government also plans to further cut taxes and provide equity financing for apartment purchases as a means to revitalize the sluggish housing market.Public real estate assets owned by the state-run Korea Land & Housing Corp. will be further expanded to build and offer jeonse apartments, wh

Korea’s securities industry has been sliding downhill with most domestic brokerage houses seeing their commission income declining as customers turned risk-averse amid the global financial turbulence.While a number of securities companies have been inevitably shutting down some of their retail operations and downsizing staff to stave off further downturns, Mirae Asset Securities, one of Korea’s leading brokers, aims to stand out and win customers with its latest investment products.Mirae Asset s

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok said Tuesday that Korea must further develop and advance its logistics sector to coincide with its global economic level.The government needs to create next-generation logistics companies that can provide comprehensive services using the latest advanced information technology, Hyun said in a meeting with economic-related ministers.He urged the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries to impleme

Financial markets in emerging economies with current account deficits such as India and Indonesia have been facing increased capital outflows driven by the U.S. plan to soon end monetary stimulus.These countries’ stocks, bonds and currencies have weakened, and their sovereign risks, measured by credit default swap premiums, increased over the past two weeks.However, such negative effects have not spilled over to Korea, further justifying market analysts’ claims that Asia’s fourth-largest economy

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said Monday that it proposed amendments to customs legislations allowing the expansion of duty free shops operated by small and medium enterprises.The revision also included downsizing duty free shops owned by conglomerates such as Lotte and Shinsegae, and restricting them to maintain a market share below 60 percent.SMEs, meanwhile, will be able to see the benefits from this revision that will allow an increase in the number of their shops to account for more

Seoul office worker Jasmine HS Kim and her husband are contemplating what to do when their apartment lease expires at the end of this year.Their owner has already notified them through a real estate agent that she is considering shifting to billing monthly rents, and would no longer accept large-sum deposits, or “jeonse.”This has prompted them to start looking for available and affordable jeonse apartments in Seoul, but Kim said there are not many choices in the market. Apartment prices are too

Providing retail loan and deposit services may seem like KB Kookmin Bank’s only business to many domestic consumers.With a new chief executive in place to lead Korea’s leading retail bank, president and CEO Lee Kun-ho aims to change this long-standing perception to show that KB is not always about business, by further extending a helping hand to society.KB Kookmin Bank can create its own “success story” only by increasing social sharing and contribution through efforts by its employees, the bank

Political parties are locked in fierce debate to reach an agreement on an additional set of measures to boost housing transactions but also cool apartment deposit prices, or “jeonse,” following the government’s housing stimulus policy announced in April.While the ruling Saenuri Party argues for the abolishment of heavy capital gains tax for multiple home owners, the main opposition Democratic Party favors a housing bill that includes regulatory caps on jeonse and monthly rent prices.As the two p

The National Tax Service said Tuesday that it would deal sternly with 47 people allegedly operating unreported overseas accounts that hold more than 1 billion won each.The state-run tax collector urged those offshore accountholders to voluntarily report their deposits to the authority, or otherwise face the consequences of being audited.It said it would publicly disclose the owners of offshore accounts with deposits of more than 5 billion won should they refuse to abide by the law and report the

The government’s tax revision that was modified after drawing public backlash shows how desperate the Park Geun-hye administration is becoming to find funds for its welfare pledges.Spending 135 trillion won for equitable wealth distribution over the next four years would require a “big pot” of money that needs to be drawn from its reserve funds by maintaining a budget surplus, funds raised via government bonds, and the business community and the people by levying taxes.It simply ran out of optio

Woori Financial Group has officially launched the sale of its subsidiary Woori Investment & Securities along with other non-banking units, financial regulators said Friday.Korea’s leading brokerage house will be offered in a “package” with three other nonbank subsidiaries ― Woori Aviva Life Insurance, Woori Asset Management and Woori FG Savings Bank.Potential buyers are required to submit their preliminary bids for the batch of nonbanking units to their lead sales manager Citigroup Global Market

The National Tax Service is set to closely scrutinize the books of high-income and self-employed professionals such as doctors, lawyers, architects, real estate agents and private moneylenders to see whether they have been properly paying their taxes. This toughened stance comes as the Ministry of Strategy and Finance seeks to increase its tax collection from the self-employed to make up for the possible decrease in revenue following the readjustment of its tax code revision.The Ministry of Fina

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles scrutinizing key aspects and sectors related to the creative economy the Park Geun-hye government is promoting as a national agenda. The series was made in cooperation with the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. This is the first part of the series. ― Ed. When President Park Geun-hye introduced her creative economy policy during the election campaign late last year, most people were bewi

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok said that the government will not make any changes to its welfare policy following the readjustment of its tax code revision.The administration’s 135 trillion won ($120.6 billion) budget for welfare expansion will not be reduced, and it will stick to the plan it pledged for the lower and middle class, the finance minister stressed to reporters after an economic-related meeting on Wednesday.The ministry’s latest modification of the revision,