South Korea’s first vice finance minister said Friday the global food insecurity worsened by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic will not have a serious impact on the local food supply chain, but the government will continue to keep an eye on the market condition. “According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the FAO Food Price Index has continued its upward trend in recent months, signaling food insecurity around the globe,” Kim Yong-beom, first vice

South Korea's state pension fund posted a return rate of over 4 percent through September on robust performances in domestic and overseas stock markets, its operator said Friday. The state pension fund registered a 4.17 percent investment return at the end of September, according to the National Pension Service (NPS). It chalked up a 8.47 percent investment return from the local stock market and a 3.28 percent yield from investments in overseas stocks. The fund's return rates from investme

The opening of South Korea's foreign exchange market will be delayed by one hour on the day of the college entrance exam next week, the committee in charge of the foreign exchange market said Friday. The foreign exchange market is set to open at 10 a.m. and close at 3:30 p.m. next Thursday as part of efforts to ease traffic, according to the Seoul Foreign Exchange Market Committee. Hundreds of thousands of people, mostly high school seniors, are scheduled to take the crucial test that is wide

Midsized shipyard STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co. said Friday its creditors led by the state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) have picked a consortium as the prime bidder for the shipbuilder. On Nov. 9, the creditors signed a preliminary deal with the consortium comprising local private equity fund KH Investment (KHI) and United Asset Management Company (UAMCO), South Korea's biggest bad debt clearer, to sell the shipbuilder. After the deal, the creditors put up the stake in the shipbuil

South Korea's manufacturing industry saw its added value shrink at the fastest clip in 21 years in 2019 on falling prices of chips and other key products, government data showed Friday. The added value of the country's manufacturing and mining sectors came to 559.8 trillion won ($507 billion) last year, down 1.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea. It was the largest annualized contraction since the 2.1 percent fall recorded in 1998 in the wake of the count

South Korean institutions' investments in foreign securities rose in the third quarter from three months earlier as global financial markets recovered from pandemic-driven losses, central bank data showed Friday. The combined value of foreign securities held by institutional investors came to $345.4 billion as of end-September, up $8.9 billion from three months earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). It marked a gain for the second straight quarter after a $9.5 billion fall in the firs

South Korean banks' lending rates stayed flat in October, despite rising market rates, central bank data showed Friday. The average interest rate charged on new bank loans came to 2.66 percent in October, unchanged from the previous month, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). In September, banks' lending rates rose for the first time in four months. The rates declined for the third straight month since June due to the impact of the central bank's policy rate cut in May.

SEJONG -- Foreign ownership of South Korean land has continued to increase over the past few years, data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport showed. As of December 2019 foreigners owned 248.6 million square meters of land, or 248.6 square kilometers, which is the latest figure available. This was a 3 percent increase from a year earlier in terms of land owned, as opposed to the value of the real estate. Compared with December 2016, when the figure was 233.5 million square m

Govt seeks to include food delivery apps in dining coupon program amid social distancing

Central bank holds interest rate steady at record low in a year-end move

South Korea said Thursday it plans to reduce the operation of some coal-powered plants over the winter in line with efforts to cut the emission of fine dust. Under the plan, the country will halt the operation of from nine to 16 coal-powered plants over the season, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy. Other plants will be required to maintain their power output at 80 percent of capacity depending on demand. South Korea first adopted the reduction scheme last year. Throug

The South Korean central bank on Thursday held its policy rate unchanged at a record low of 0.5 percent, while slightly revising up this year's economic outlook, amid growing concerns over a winter wave of coronavirus infections. As expected, the monetary policy board of the Bank of Korea (BOK) voted to leave the base rate steady in this year's final rate-setting meeting. Driven by signs of a modest recovery in exports, the BOK revised up this year's economic growth outlook to 1.1 percent cont

Nonperforming loans at South Korean banks edged down in the third quarter from three months earlier due to a decline in overdue corporate loans, data showed Thursday. Nonperforming loans came to 14.1 trillion won ($12.7 billion) at the end of September, down 900 billion won from the end of June, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). Overdue corporate loans reached 12 trillion won at the end of September, compared with 12.8 trillion won from a quarter earlier, the

South Korea's exports are expected to rebound by rising 6.6 percent on-year in November following a brief fall in the previous month, on the back of stronger demand for chips and automobiles, a poll showed Thursday. The country's outbound shipments are estimated to reach $46.9 billion this month, according to the poll by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency. The survey was conducted on eight local brokerage houses. Imports were estimated at $40.3 billion this month, res

Household expenditure on alcohol and cigarettes hit a new high in the July-September period, data showed Wednesday, with the “stay-at-home” situation amid the coronavirus pandemic apparently fueling the spending. Monthly spending on tobacco and liquor by local households of two or more people gained 10.7 percent on-year to an average 42,980 won ($38.70), in the three-month period, data compiled by Statistics Korea showed. The figure marks the largest since the government started