To help startups prepare for the future, Korea Development Bank has been running the “KDB Next Round” program that helps link companies with new investors. First launched in August last year, KDB’s Next Round was introduced in an effort to minimize market friction and promote market expansion in order to further develop startup investments in the wake of the “fourth industrial revolution.” Th...

South Korean employees were paid an average 3.29 million won ($2,885) per month in 2015, with male workers earning 1.7 times more than their female colleagues, government data showed Thursday. According to the data by Statistics Korea, the median monthly wage of South Korea's employees was 2.41 million won. The statistics agency said the data is based on a survey of 15 million workers hired by ...

South Korean shares extended gains late Thursday morning as foreigners turned net buyers. The won traded higher against the dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 7.19 points, or 0.30 percent, to 2,364.72 as of 11:20 a.m. Individuals bought a net 148.91 billion won ($131 million) worth of stocks. But institutions dumped holdings. Large-cap stocks were mostly trading highe...

The South Korean government has used nearly half of its planned budget in the first five months of the year as part of its efforts to frontload spending to prop up the economy, the finance ministry said Thursday. Budget spending by the government and public institutions for the January-May period stood at 135.3 trillion won ($118.7 billion), up 5.5 trillion won from the earlier target of 129.8 t...

Sales of whisky products in South Korea continued to fall in the first five months of this year, mainly due to a protracted economic slump and a change in the drinking culture, industry data showed Thursday. According to the data, whisky product sales in the January-May period fell 6.8 percent to 619,341 boxes from 664,310 tallied in the same period last year. A box contains 18 0.5-liter bottles...

The combined value of stocks owned by South Korea's 100 richest stockholders has jumped 21.3 percent, helped by a rally in the stock market, industry data showed Thursday. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 16.3 percent to 2,357.53 on Wednesday, compared with a closing price of 2,026.16 as of Jan. 2 this year. According to the data by industry tracker Chaebul.com, the value ...

South Korea's four major lenders saw mortgage applications jump nearly 11 percent shortly after the government unveiled measures to cool the property market this week, sources said Thursday. The finance ministry announced Monday it will start tightening credit early next month as part of efforts to counter signs of overheating real estate markets in Seoul and several other regions. According to...

South Korean stocks opened higher Thursday despite overnight losses on Wall Street, led by gains in top cap Samsung Electronics. The won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 1.56 points, or 0.07 percent, to 2,359.09. Foreigners turned net buyers after shedding 183 billion won worth of stocks in the previous session. On Wednesday (local time), the Dow ...

The financial regulators launched a probe Wednesday on the massive short sellings of the game developer NCsoft the previous day, amid market concerns over alleged insider trading. On Tuesday, a day before the highly-anticipated release of the mobile game “Lineage M,” stocks of its developer NCsoft plunged 11.4 percent in the closing compared to Monday. This came on the heels of a hearsay circul...

Nearly half of South Korean workers paid no income tax in 2015, a state-run think tank‘s report showed Tuesday. According to the report by the state-run Korea Institute of Public Finance, 46.5 percent of 17 million wage earners were exempted from paying income tax in the year, jumping from 32.2 percent in 2013. The increase was attributed to the government’s change of income tax deduction progra...

South Korea’s stock markets are unlikely to be dampened despite foreign cash flight triggered by the MSCI’s plans to add China A Large Cap shares to its benchmark emerging markets index starting next year, according to the Financial Services Commission on Wednesday. The looming investors’ capital exodus of up to 4.3 trillion won ($3.76 billion) and reduction of their proportion in the emerging m...

South Korea's top economic leaders vowed on Wednesday that they will make concerted efforts to create quality jobs and stir up investment and innovation in the private sector. Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon, Fair Trade Commission Chairman Kim Sang-jo and presidential chief of staff for policy Jang Ha-sung had trilateral talks in Seoul earlier in the day, their first since the inauguration of Pre...

South Korean stocks ended lower on Wednesday as foreigners turned net sellers tracking losses on Wall Street. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 11.70 points, or 0.49 percent, to close at 2,357.53. Trade volume was moderate at 356.21 million shares worth 6.34 trillion won ($5.5 billion), with decliners outnumbering advancers 516 to 296...

The number of single households is continuing to spike as more Koreans live away from their families, while the country’s marriage rate continues to nose-dive. According to a survey released by Statistics Korea on Wednesday, the number of single-person households in the second half of 2016 reached roughly 5.27 million as of October last year, up 3.3 percent from the previous year. The data sh...

South Korea's public sector net lending hit a record high last year, thanks to a robust gain in tax revenues and lower oil prices, data showed Wednesday. Net lending, which refers to total revenue minus total expenditures, came to 43.9 trillion won ($38.4 billion) in 2016, compared with 32.9 trillion won from a year earlier, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea. It was the highe...