INCHEON -- The development of Incheon Free Economic Zone, initially scheduled for completion by 2022, will be delayed to 2030 due to slowed investment in the aftermath of the global financial crisis and real estate market slump, officials said Tuesday. Known as IFEZ, the project was designated in August 2003 as South Korea's first such zone where foreign investors would receive tax and administr...

Few Korean companies have brought home overseas production in recent years in contrast to a sharp rise in the number of the country’s firms operating abroad. In 2012, the government began strengthening measures to facilitate the reshoring of manufacturing companies. Since then, just 41 Korean manufacturers have transferred overseas factories back to the country, according to data from the Minist...

Despite experts predicting the long Chuseok holiday earlier this month would put a damper on Korea’s export figures, exports have surged nearly 7 percent compared to last year, according to data from the Korea Customs Service. Following the 10-day holiday from Sept. 30 to Oct. 9, government data on Sunday showed that exports from Oct. 1 to 20 amounted to $26.7 billion, an increase of 6.9 percen...

South Korea's top economic chief said Monday that he will lower borrowing costs for people with low credit ratings to reduce their financial burden ahead of the scheduled announcement of tighter rules on household loans. Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon made the comment during a visit to a government-run financial support center in Seoul along with Financial Services Commission Chairman Choi Jong-...

President Moon Jae-in is scheduled to hold a meeting with officials and leaders from top labor organizations this week, an official from the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Monday. The meeting will be held Tuesday and will involve dozens of labor leaders, including those from the two umbrella labor unions -- the Federation of Korean Trade Unions and the Korean Confederation of Trade Union...

Trade ministers of 16 countries in the Asia-Pacific region will gather in South Korea this week to discuss the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the trade ministry said Monday. RCEP is in essence a massive regional free-trade agreement between the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the six countries with which ASEAN has existing free trade agreements, includi...

South Korea's manufacturing firms have improved their ability to repay short-term debt with the cash inflow from their operations in recent years, data showed Monday, despite Asia's fourth largest economy struggling with sluggish growth. The cash flow coverage ratio for 674 manufacturers listed on the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose to 124 percent last year, up from 107 percent ...

South Korea's economy is expected to grow 2.8 percent this year due to a weakening in business investment, a non-governmental think tank said Sunday. The Korea Economic Research Institute said it is lowering growth numbers for 2017 from the previous 2.9 percent, with its growth forecast for next year standing at 2.7 percent. The institute under the Federation of Korean Industries, the lobbying ...

Nearly 15 percent of professionals working as individual businesses made less than 2 million won ($1,765), or one-tenth of an average of income in these traditionally highly paid professions, suggesting growing competition in the professional market. While those in these professions, a total of 35,108, earned an average of 230.8 million won a year, 14.3 percent of the group made a monthly income...

Trade representatives of China denied the existence of trade-restrictive measures in tourism and distribution services against South Korean companies, despite the United States and Japan voicing support for Korea, a report by the World Trade Organization showed Sunday. According to the meeting minutes for a council meeting held in June by the Council for Trade in Services, the Korean government...

South Korea is set to unveil another set of measures this week, the third of its kind, aimed at curbing rising household debts amid expectations that the central bank would raise its key rate in the coming months, industry sources said Sunday. The measures, due Tuesday, come as a rise in housing prices still does not show signs of abating despite a series of measures, including heightened financ...

The government has started to buy up 370,000 tons of rice harvested this year to stabilize domestic prices of the staple grain, the agriculture ministry said Sunday. It said regional governments have been notified of Seoul's plans to "isolate" rice this year and details related to the purchase. Besides the rice to be bought from growers for the purpose of keeping market prices at certain levels...

The government said Sunday it will set up a committee comprised of experts to review President Moon Jae-in's industrial technology-related state affairs and policy goals. Earlier, the Moon administration announced that finding new growth engines through the so-called fourth industrial revolution for the South Korean economy is one of its key policy objectives. Moon said the revolution will help ...

Professionals in jobs that traditionally enjoyed high pay like lawyers and accountants earned an average of 230.8 million won ($203,796) per individual last year but close to 15 percent of the people in these professions made less than one-tenth of the amount, data showed Sunday. Records provided by the National Tax Service for parliamentary audits said 35,108 people were registered to be in pri...

The total value of gift certificates issued in South Korea last year accounted for more than 50 percent of the country's money printed by the central bank, a report showed Sunday. Some 11.3 trillion won ($10 billion) worth of gift vouchers, mobile coupon and revenue stamps were issued in 2016, according to a report by Rep. Shim Ki-joon of the ruling Minjoo Party. This is equivalent to 56.2 perc...