SEJONG -- Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki has expressed his commitment to raising accuracy and transparency in generating figures on tax revenue, reiterating his apology for the government’s excess revenue beyond its earlier estimate. In his meeting with reporters on Monday, Hong said the Finance Ministry would “focus on raising transparency (in operation and forecast of t...

SEJONG -- The number of self-employed workers declined by 18,000 in South Korea last year, despite improvement in employment indices, state data showed Monday. Self-employed workers refers to non-salaried people who operate businesses without hiring employees or do so with several employees, mostly less than five. The country has a dominant portion of self-employed people engaging in sectors suc...

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki called Monday for stern actions against tax evasion related to real estate deals as he renewed the government's commitment to stabilizing the housing market this year. Hong made the remarks during his meeting with the chiefs of the country's four major agencies under the finance ministry -- the National Tax Service (NTS), the Korea Customs Service, the Public Procure...

Banks in South Korea are expected to take a wait-and-see attitude in their lending policy during the first quarter after significantly toughening loan controls for months in line with the government's push to rein in household debt. According to the poll of 17 banks and other financial institutions by the Bank of Korea, the index measuring the banks' attitude toward home-backed and unsecured loa...

Four out of 10 self-employed people in South Korea are considering closing their businesses due to sluggish sales amid the long-enforced strict social distancing rules during the coronavirus pandemic, a survey showed Sunday. According to the survey of 500 people operating restaurants, retail and other service businesses by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), a major business lobby group, ...

SEJONG -- The Ministry of Economy and Finance has unveiled its policy to draw up a supplementary budget worth 14 trillion won ($11.7 billion), most of which will be used to support small business owners including the self-employed. Under constitutional government in Korea since 1948, this will mark the second time a supplementary budget bill has been submitted to the National Assembly in January...

South Korea’s central bank on Friday raised its base rate by 25 basis points to 1.25 percent, returning it to the level before the pandemic started, with its chief hinting at additional hikes. As a result of its first rate-setting meeting of the year, the Bank of Korea’s monetary policy board delivered its third pandemic-era rate hike, following its previous 25 basis point rate hikes in August a...

The South Korean economy is on a recovery track on robust exports, but the spike in COVID-19 cases and strengthened social distancing rules are feared to hurt domestic demand, the finance ministry said Friday. Amid the fast spread of the omicron COVID-19 variant, external economic uncertainty has persisted as global supply chain bottlenecks have deepened and the Federal Reserve is ramping up a s...

Korea also asked its contributors to pay for a shorter term to receive the pension. Asia’s fourth-largest economy’s qualifying years stood at 20, while the G-5 average came to 31.6 years. The UK, Germany and France’s qualifying years stood at 35, 45 and 43, respectively. The report comes as Korea is set to become a superaged society in the near future, as it also deals with growing elderly pover...

SEJONG -- South Korea was found to have lagged far behind major countries in the latest economic growth, data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development showed Thursday. According to the French-based organization, Korea’s gross domestic product grew 0.3 percent -- as a provisional figure -- in the third quarter of 2021, compared to the previous quarter. This placed Asia’s fo...

Foreign investors' net purchase of South Korean securities was the biggest in 12 years last year due largely to their buying spree of local bonds, central bank data showed Thursday. Foreigners bought a net $38.71 billion worth of Korean securities last year, sharply up from $3.47 billion the previous year, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). It marked the largest figure since 20...

The delinquency ratio on loans extended by banks in South Korea inched up in November from a month earlier, the financial watchdog said Thursday. The rate for banks' won-denominated loans more than 30 days overdue stood at 0.25 percent as of end-November, up 0.01 percentage point from a month earlier, according to preliminary data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). Compared with a ye...

South Korean banks' household loans declined in December due to the central bank's rate hike and tight lending rules, data from the Bank of Korea (BOK) showed Thursday. Outstanding bank loans to local households had come to 1,060.7 trillion won ($982 billion) as of the end of last year, down 200 billion won from the previous month, according to the BOK. The December reading compared with a 2.9 ...

South Korea's tax revenue rebounded in November last year from a year ago as corporate income tax increased amid the economic recovery, the finance ministry said Thursday. The government collected 16 trillion won in taxes in November, compared with 14 trillion won a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Tax revenue rebounded in the month after a fall of 6.2 trillion wo...

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Thursday the government plans to spend 6.3 trillion won ($5.3 billion) to support corporate facility investment in vaccine development by 2024. The move is aimed at nurturing the vaccine industry as a key sector at a similar level to the semiconductor industry as South Korea seeks to foster new industries to secure engines of growth, according to the finance min...