The government announced a fresh set of regulations Tuesday to cool down the overheated housing market, a month after adopting strong measures for Seoul and other cities. On Aug. 2, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport designated 25 regions in Seoul and two other cities as "overheated speculative districts" to tighten mortgage rules and restrict transactions of new homes. This acti...

Daily credit card spending in South Korea hit a record high in the first half of this year, data showed Tuesday, in the latest sign that plastic has become one of the most favored tools for payment. The amount of transactions processed through credit cards came to 1.76 trillion won ($1.5 billion) a day on average in the January-June period, up 8.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the da...

South Korea's credit unions, or member-owned financial cooperatives, saw their combined net profit fall 1.3 percent on year for the first half of this year, due to a rise in loan-loss provisions, data showed Tuesday. The combined net profit of 2,258 credit unions, including Nonghyup and Suhyup banks, stood at 1.21 trillion won ($1.06 billion) for the January-June period, down 16.1 billion won fr...

South Korea's current account surplus narrowed in July from a year earlier due to an increased deficit in the services balance, central bank data showed Tuesday. The country's current account surplus reached $7.26 billion in July, compared with a surplus of $8.41 billion a year earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea. The figure represents the 65th straight month of th...

South Korea's economic growth ranking among major advanced and emerging economies plunged 10 spots in the second quarter from three months earlier as its recovery lost ground, data showed Tuesday. Asia's fourth-largest economy expanded 0.6 percent on-quarter in the April-June period, compared with a 1.1 percent expansion for the first quarter, according to the data from the Organization for Econ...

South Korea has faced no new import restrictions or related investigations by foreign countries for the past two months in a positive sign for the export-driven economy, data showed Tuesday. No South Korean products were subjected to fresh import regulations in the form of anti-dumping duties, countervailing duties, safeguards or a combination of them during the July-August period, according to ...

Following North Korea’s nuclear weapons test Sunday, sales of silver bars soared by 10 times on Monday, according to the Korea Gold Exchange. Silver bars are in high demand among middle-class investors seeking an affordable alternative to gold bars as a safety haven currency during times of geopolitical uncertainty. KGE said sales of 1-kilogram gold bars numbered 194 on Monday morning alone, ri...

Amid continued ambiguity regarding the fate of the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement, some industry experts are predicting high odds that US President Donald Trump may actually terminate the trade deal, following North Korea’s escalating threats, which are adding tension to the political and economic climate between South Korea and the US. “While some people view Trump’s threats as being bluffs, in...

South Korean companies struggling with restraints on their businesses in China are likely to come under more pressure with the deployment of additional launchers of a US anti-missile battery here set to begin as early as this week. Beijing seems unlikely to ease its stance on the issue in the wake of North Korea’s sixth and most powerful nuclear test Sunday. China began to take retaliatory meas...

Finance Ministry, supervisors focus on keeping up nation’s credit standing amid geopolitical risks

A recent set of surveys by Gallup Korea showed the public remains largely split on the Moon Jae-in government’s drive to suspend construction of nuclear reactors as part of its new energy plan. The government-led committee has also set out to conduct its own survey through a consortium of research firms to collect a wide range of public opinion before reaching a final decision on Shin-Kori react...

Purchases made through mobile devices in South Korea hit a fresh record high in July as smartphones are widening their presence in the world's most wired country, government data showed Monday. Mobile transactions through smartphones and tablets reached a record 4.01 trillion won ($3.6 billion) in July, up 35.1 percent from a year earlier, according to data from Statistics Korea. The total amou...

South Korea's top financial regulator said Monday it will cut the interest on overdue debt and the premiums of indemnity medical insurance in line with the government's policy of easing the financial burdens for low-income earners. Choi Jong-ku, chairman of the Financial Services Commission, also said the FSC will actively encourage insurance firms to return unclaimed insurance benefits worth 7....

Taxing religious groups will add 64.7 billion won ($57 million) to state coffers annually starting next year, a report said Monday. The Moon Jae-in government has pledged to levy taxes on the clergy from 2018 onwards as part of its drive for equitable taxation, although people working for churches and temples have been exempted from paying income tax until now, as their work has been regarded as...

Nearly a quarter of salaried workers in South Korea did not use their vacation time from August 2015 through July of last year, a report by a local culture and tourism organization said Monday. The findings, based on a survey of 4,357 people nationwide by the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, showed 23.9 percent of those checked said they did not use their vacation time. The lack of free time...