South Korea's trade watchdog said Thursday it has decided to recommend the government extend anti-dumping duties on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film imported from Taiwan, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, citing substantial damage to the local industry. The Korea Trade Commission said it has advised the finance ministry to set duties of 3.19 percent to 60.95 percent on PET film coming from the countries for the next five years. The country already had been applying tariffs of around

The delinquency rate for South Korean banks' won-denominated loans rose in July due to an increase in overdue corporate loans, the financial regulator said Thursday. The rate for bank loans more than 30 days overdue stood at 0.27 percent at the end of July, up from 0.25 percent the previous month, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). Compared with a year earlier, the rate was down 0.09 percentage point in July. The delinquency rate for corporate loans rose 0.03 percentage poi

South Korea's public account surplus turned to deficit in 2020 as the government increased fiscal spending to cushion the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, central bank data showed Thursday. In 2020, the country's public account deficit came to 50.6 trillion won ($43.3 billion), according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The deficit compared with a 14.7 trillion won surplus in 2019, when the country's public account balance continued to stay in the black for the fifth consecut

South Korea's exports of fishery products rose nearly 18 percent on-year in the first eight months of 2021 amid the pandemic, data showed Thursday. Outbound shipments of fishery products reached $1.74 billion over the January-August period, compared to $1.48 billion tallied a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. The ministry attributed the growth to more people visiting restaurants around the globe compared to the previous year, which boosted the demand for seafood

South Korea's trade ministry said Thursday it has been maintaining robust trade with Britain on the back of their free trade agreement (FTA), which was revamped earlier this year, despite London's divorce with the European Union. South Korea and Britain held their first meeting of the trade committee of goods virtually to discuss a wide array of commerce issues and follow up on the bilateral FTA, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The two countries implemented the pact i

South Korean stocks opened flat Thursday amid easing concerns about a global economic recovery. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 1.84 points, or 0.06 percent, to trade at 3,151.56 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. In Seoul, market bellwether Samsung Electronics declined 0.26 percent, with No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix losing 1.86 percent. Internet portal operator Naver added 1.5 percent, but giant pharmaceutical firm Samsung Biologics decreased 1.6 percent.

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Thursday that state-backed funds will extend loan maturity and rollover interest payments again for smaller firms and merchants hit hard by the pandemic. State-run agencies and funds set up to assist small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and micro business owners will extend the measures by another six months until March next year, Hong said. The move follows similar measures taken by local banks as part of efforts to support smaller companies and merchant

Consumer financing firms in South Korea saw their combined net profit jump 50 percent on-year in the first half, supported by strong gains from stock rallies and a modest gain in interest income, data showed Thursday. The combined net profit of 114 credit-specialized financial firms stood at 1.99 trillion won ($1.69 billion) in the first half, compared with a profit of 1.33 trillion won a year earlier, according to the data by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). Their interest income ro

Cyworld, the once-popular social networking service, signed a strategic partnership with Hancom, an office suite software developer in South Korea, according to both companies on Wednesday. The partnership comes as Cyworld gears up to jump into the market with its metaverse-powered service Cyworld Z. The metaverse refers to a virtual world in which individuals can interact as avatars through different kinds of virtual technology such as augmented reality and virtual reality. The partnershi

South Korean stocks advanced for a fourth session Wednesday, supported by foreign buying, as some investors sought to digest the weak inflation data in the United States. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) added 4.57 points, or 0.15 percent, to close at 3,153.4 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 605 million shares worth some 12 trillion won ($10.2 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 531 to 322. Foreigners bought a n

South Korea‘s tax chief met his counterparts in Denmark and Hungary to strengthen cooperation with the European agencies, and discuss future of electronic tax administration system in the post-pandemic era, officials said Wednesday. National Tax Service Commissioner Kim Dae-ji held a bilateral meeting with Merete Agergaard, chief of Danish tax agency in Copenhagen and a separate meeting in Budapest with his Hungarian counterpart Vagujhelyi Ferenc during his trip earlier this month. Meet

South Korean companies saw their profitability grow in the second quarter, with their sales improving despite the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, central bank data showed Wednesday. The ratio of operating profit to sales of firms in the country reached 7.4 percent in the second quarter, up from 5.2 percent tallied a year ago, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). At the same time, the pretax net profit margin of South Korean companies rose on-year to 8.2 percent from 4.6 percent.