Fears over rapid inflation and sluggish growth are gripping South Korea, with indicators pointing to a gloomy outlook and authorities conceding that Asia’s fourth-largest economy is facing a “full-blown crisis.” The Finance Ministry on Thursday revised up its inflation forecast for this year to 4.7 percent from 2.2 percent, with the estimate surpassing 4 percent for the first time in 11 years. I...

South Korea’s benchmark Kospi fell 45.59 points, or 1.83 percent, from a day earlier to 2447.38 Wednesday, marking a seventh straight negative session as investors dramatically raise their bets on a US Fed hike of 75 basis points on Wednesday there, steeper than the 50 basis points it had indicated. The main board slid to an intraday low of 2436.04, a new 52-week low, as foreign investors carrie...

Simmering fears over a sharper-than-expected US Federal Reserve rate hike amid red-hot US inflation dragged down South Korea’s benchmark Kospi below the 2,500 mark for the first time in 19 months on Tuesday. The main board closed at 2,492.97, after reaching an intraday low of 2,457.39. The Fed will raise interest rates on Wednesday there, with investors dramatically raising their bets on a hike ...

South Korea’s benchmark Kospi closed at 2,504.51 Monday, its lowest level since Nov. 13, 2020 when it fell to 2,493.87, as investors priced in a big-step US rate hike amid a record annual increase in US consumer prices in May. A month earlier, US consumer prices surged 8.6 percent on-year, the largest gain since 1981 on record-high gasoline prices and soaring food costs, fueling bets on a sharpe...

Bank of Korea Gov. Rhee Chang-yong on Friday backed a “timely” rate hike to avoid fallout from a belated decision, ahead of a policy board meeting in July, in an address to mark the 72nd anniversary of the bank’s founding. The central bank has already lifted interest rates three times this year, doing so at every policy meeting except for the one in February -- a decision experts say demonstrate...

McDonald’s, the world’s largest burger chain by revenue, is seeking a buyer to take over the Korean business it wholly owns, six years after its first attempt, which fell apart after a local dairy company backed out. “We’re looking for a strategic partner who could help our business here grow. We’re looking at several options with outside advisers,” a McDonald’s Korea official said Friday, decli...

South Korea’s economy grew 0.6 percent in the first quarter this year from three months earlier, lower than the 0.7 percent growth forecast in April, the Bank of Korea said Wednesday, citing weak investment and consumption as factors behind the revision. Growth in the gross domestic product for January-March, which slowed from 1.3 percent on-quarter in the previous cycle, expanded 3 percent on-y...

Kim Joo-hyun, chairman of the Credit Finance Association and a former bureaucrat experienced in crisis management at the Financial Services Commission, was tapped to lead the top financial policymaker under the Yoon Suk-yeol government. Kim helped South Korea ride out the 2008 financial crisis as the inaugural chief of policy at the FSC, which was set up in January that year as part of a governm...

South Korea’s household debt topped 104 percent of gross domestic product, marking the highest level among 36 major economies, the Institute of International Finance’s data showed. Korea’s household debt fell to 104.3 percent of GDP in the first quarter of this year from 105 percent in the same period a year earlier, still outrunning rivals by a large margin, according to the report the Washingt...

Central banks should think about what they should do besides keeping prices stable as emerging economies including South Korea struggle to avert anemic growth once persistent inflation caused by the pandemic cools off, Bank of Gov. Rhee Chang-yong said Thursday at a conference. “To escape a low growth, low inflation trap, should emerging market economies, or Korea for that matter, follow the sam...

The South Korean government should help companies build a hydrogen economy because using the renewable energy ensures growth as businesses race to reduce their carbon footprint, Woo Tae-hee, vice chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Tuesday at a forum on green hydrogen. “I believe it is time for us to turn the climate crisis into an opportunity to secure the hydrogen mark...

Self-employed workers will likely bear the brunt of the Bank of Korea’s rate hike on Thursday, the fifth raise since August last year from the central bank’s record low of 0.5 percent amid persistent inflation, a credit ratings agency said Friday in a report. The self-employed in 2020 spent 46 percent of their annual income amid falling earnings to settle debt while households used 34 percent on...

South Korean men shop at a convenience store more often than women, with men in their 20s visiting most often among all age groups of both men and women, at nine times a month on average, according to data released by Samsung Card on Thursday. In the first quarter this year, men using the firm’s card visited a convenience store 6.3 times a month on average, while women shopped there 3.9 times a ...

The Yoon Suk-yeol government is considering extending mortgage loan maturity terms for newlyweds and young Koreans aged 19-39 as part of efforts to follow through on a pledge to help young people acquire their homes, amid runaway housing prices in the Seoul metropolitan area. Under the new plan, young people would be able to repay their loan over 50 years, instead of 40 years, the longest repaym...

South Korean households’ outlook for inflation in the next 12 months rose this month to the highest level in nine years and seven months, according to a Bank of Korea survey released Tuesday ahead of its rate decision Thursday. Survey respondents forecast inflation to average 3.3 percent, up from the previous record high of 3.1 percent in April. In a monthly survey of 2,500 households conducted...