South Korea's economy is expected to contract 1 percent in 2020 from a year earlier due to the coronavirus pandemic, a private think tank said Thursday. The latest growth projection by the LG Economic Research Institute (LGERI) is much lower than its previous estimate of 1.8 percent expansion made in September last year. The think tank, affiliated with South Korea's fourth-largest conglomerate LG Group, predicted Asia's fourth-largest economy will recover and grow 2.5 percent on-year in 2021

Economy Aug. 6, 2020

South Korea's economy contracted at a sharper rate than what had been expected in the second quarter, delivering the worst performance in over two decades, as the pandemic hammered outbound shipments and private spending in Asia's fourth-largest economy, central bank data showed Thursday. In the April-June period, the country's real gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 2.9 percent from the same period last year, marking the slowest growth since a 3.8 percent on-year contraction in the last thre

Economy July 23, 2020

Major global investment banks (IBs) maintained their revised-up growth outlook for South Korea's economy, a report showed Sunday, despite a gloomier outlook recently portrayed by the country's central bank. In June, nine global investment banks forecast the South Korean economy to contract 0.4 percent from a year earlier in 2020, unchanged from their estimate tallied in May, according to the report from the Korea Center for International Finance (KCIF).  In May, the nine investment ban

Economy July 19, 2020

The South Korean economy is expected to contract 2.3 percent on-year in 2020, hit by the fallout of the new coronavirus outbreak, a local private think tank said Sunday. Asia's fourth-largest economy is forecast to have fallen 1.7 percent in the first half and to contract 2.9 percent in the second half, according to the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI). The yearly projection is the same as its earlier estimate made in March. It would mark the South Korean economy's first contraction

Economy July 12, 2020

South Korea’s consumption has recovered slightly on the back of the government’s emergency cash handout, but its economic activity and exports remain sluggish, still weighed down by risks stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, a state-run think tank said Wednesday. “The slowdown in Korea‘s consumption has decelerated, but economic activity remains sluggish due to falling external demand on the global spread of COVID-19,” the Korea Development Institute said in it

Economy July 8, 2020

South Korea's economy is widely expected to suffer its first annual contraction in over a decade this year but may expand, depending on how swiftly and effectively the government implements its budget spending and how quickly the COVID-19 pandemic is brought under control, a think tank said Sunday. "Considering that economic indicators are worsening to levels seen during the Asian financial crisis when the country posted a negative growth, the possibility of the country posting a negative

Economy July 5, 2020

Labor unions on Wednesday demanded a 16.4 percent hike in the national minimum wage for next year, while employers called for a 2.1 percent cut, presaging a tough negotiation already complicated by the impact from the coronavirus pandemic. The two sides presented their initial demands during a fourth plenary meeting of the Minimum Wage Commission in Seoul. This year's minimum wage is 8,590 won ($7.17) per hour, marking a 2.9 percent increase on-year, far lower than the 10.9 percent in 2019 an

Social Affairs July 1, 2020

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday sharply revised down its 2020 growth estimate for South Korea, along with that for the entire Asian region, expecting Asia's fourth-largest economy to shrink 1 percent from a year earlier. The revision marks a turnaround from a 1.3 percent on-year growth forecast in April. Last year, the Korean economy expanded 2 percent. "In a regular supplement to its annual flagship economic publication, the Asian Development Outlook 2020 released in April,

Economy June 18, 2020

A violinist will perform the solo repertoires of Bach and Ysaye, to take the audience on a “music trip” to Europe in July. Violinist Lim Ji-young, 25, will present the unaccompanied violin sonatas by Bach and Ysaye at central Seoul’s Seoul Anglican Cathedral on July 1 and the Seosomun Shrine History Museum on July 11. Lim rose to stardom in the classical music scene as the first Korean violinist to win the 2015 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, Belgium. Since then,

Performance June 16, 2020

South Korea's economy shrank at a slightly less-than-expected rate in the first quarter but is projected to face a deeper contraction in the current quarter due to the growing economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, the central bank said Tuesday. The country's real gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 1.3 percent from three months earlier in the January-March period, 0.1 percentage point lower than the expected 1.4 percent contraction in advance data, according to the Bank of Korea

Economy June 2, 2020

South Korea on Monday sharply slashed its growth estimate for the year, but expected a strong economic rebound next year on the back of massive fiscal spending, vowing to adopt "all possible means" to help Asia's fourth-largest economy chug along amid the pandemic. The finance ministry revised down its growth outlook to 0.1 percent from the 2.4 percent forecast late last year. Such a sharp cut follows the outbreak of the new coronavirus that has infected more than 6 million people g

Economy June 1, 2020

The Bank of Korea (BOK) will be prodded to further slash its key rate to support the virus-stricken economy, experts said Monday, but when it will push down the base rate to an unknown territory remains to be seen. In a poll conducted by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency, 12 out of 18 experts surveyed anticipated to see a rate cut this month. But all but one expected the BOK to cut the rate by a quarter percentage point before the end of September, according to the s

Economy May 25, 2020

  South Korea's corporate tax revenue is expected to decline this year for the first time in six years due to the coronavirus impact on major industries, a local think tank said Wednesday. The country's corporate tax revenue rose in the past five years to 72 trillion won ($59 billion) in 2019 from 45 trillion won in 2015, according to the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI). This year, however, corporate tax revenue could reach an estimated 56.5 trillion won, 12 percent lower than

Economy May 20, 2020

North Korea is presumed to be facing a shortage of around 860,000 tons of grain this year amid worries that the coronavirus pandemic could aggravate the situation, a unification ministry official said Tuesday. The projection is based on an earlier estimate by a local state-run institute that the North produced around 4.64 million tons of grain last year, which was below the 5.5 million tons widely believed to a minimum amount needed to feed its 25 million people. "This year, the North wi

North Korea May 19, 2020

With coronavirus outbreaks restricting in-person meetings and overseas travel, diplomats are turning increasingly to a safer, more convenient mode of engagement with their foreign counterparts: videoconferencing. In recent months, the typical scene of officials huddling together to build rapport and engage in negotiations of some sorts has been replaced by the spectacle of them sitting in front of projection screens or digital displays to keep their diplomacy running. Officials have been co

Foreign Affairs May 12, 2020

South Korea's exports are expected to have plunged by a whopping 25 percent in April from a year earlier, a poll showed Monday, as the new coronavirus pandemic has dealt a harsh blow to global trade and corporate activities. Outbound shipments are estimated at $36.4 billion this month, according to the poll by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency. The survey was carried out on nine local brokerage houses. The sharp decrease was also attributable to the falling global o

Economy April 27, 2020

The signs of a slowing COVID-19 spread on the back of a strong state drive to contain the novel coronavirus are raising expectations of an early recovery of the South Korean economy. Despite the flattened curve of infection cases, it is premature for excessive optimism on Korea posting a V-shaped recovery, considering its heavy dependence on exports for growth, experts said Wednesday. “Given that Korea is quite an export-oriented economy, the slumping global demand is expected to hit th

Economy April 22, 2020

The Bank of Korea (BOK) on Thursday kept its policy rate frozen at an all-time low of 0.75 percent, citing the need to see the effect of steps already taken, but painted a grim growth outlook, forecasting "considerably" slower growth than earlier expected. "Gross domestic product growth is projected to fall considerably below the February forecast of 2.1 percent, and uncertainties around the future path of GDP growth are also judged to be very high," the BOK said in its mon

Economy April 9, 2020