Renault Samsung, the South Korean unit of French carmaker Renault, has successfully brought back its popular XM3 model to the market after dealing with technical issues, officials said Thursday. The subcompact SUV comeback follows after facing a string of challenges right from the beginning. Its launch in March last year came amid the country’s first mass outbreak of COVID-19 but the automaker m...

South Korea’s central bank on Thursday slashed the country’s economic growth outlook for this year, forecasting a 0.2 percent on-year contraction amid the persisting COVID-19 pandemic. It also cut the policy rate to an unprecedented 0.5 percent, further down from the previous record low of 0.75 percent, keeping pace with the government’s expansionary fiscal actions to shore up the virus-hit econ...

The Bank of Korea and the US Federal Reserve Board on Thursday signed bilateral currency swap arrangements totaling at $60 billion, to be effective for the next six months, South Korea's central bank said. "The latest (US-Korea) currency swap deal seeks to reduce the strain upon the recently struggling global dollar currency market," the BOK said in a late night release. The US Fed conventional...

On Friday, BOK Gov. Lee Ju-yeol attended an economic policy meeting chaired by President Moon Jae-in, along with other key economic-related ministers including Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki and Financial Services Commission Chairman Eun Sung-soo. Lee’s presence at the presidential meeting -- the first since the country confirmed its first COVID-19 case in late January -- triggered speculation tha...

After struggling with a record-low growth pace last year, South Korea’s economy was aspiring to make a rebound in 2020, hopefully on the back of global trade improvements and a chip industry recovery -- until suffering the harsh blow of the novel coronavirus. As of December, major global organizations and policy institutes here forecast that Korea’s economic growth pace for 2020 will be in the 2...

Responding to public anxiety over prolonged fallout of the novel coronavirus, the government distinctly turned to all-out countermeasures, marking a turn from its early optimism. But its policy direction that people should resume consumption has raised controversy, as the country continued to see additional cases of infection this week. “(The government) is mobilizing all available policy actio...

We are now facing the biggest turn in history. What we are confronting is a fundamental change, in which everything we thought was true over the past 100 years is on the verge of collapse. The advertising industry can be no exception. It is now more likely than ever that the basic principles of advertising -- those set forth in marketing textbooks for decades -- will undergo changes. Rise of mil...

South Korea’s central bank on Wednesday cut the country’s key interest rate to 1.25 percent, reflecting the sluggish economic growth, low inflation and declining exports. Its second rate cut in three months -- to the lowest ever level -- is in line with the global trend toward monetary easing. “We have cut the base rate considering the lower-than-expected growth outlook and low inflation,” said...

South Korea’s government said Monday that it will insert more than 2 trillion won ($1.64 billion) of the budget next year to help local industries respond to Japan’s economic retaliations and consequent challenges on trade fronts. Also, President Moon Jae-in subscribed to an equity fund that invests in local materials and parts makers, in a supportive gesture for such aggressive fiscal actions. ...

The central bank has issued a new art catalogue, offering a periodic introduction to South Korea’s currency, officials said Sunday. The Bank of Korea’s Money Museum has published “Korea’s Money,” a catalogue that lists the country’s currencies dating back to the Goryeo Dynasty. The latest catalogue, a new edition of its previous art books, includes large- pictures of various currency designs, a...

Credit card companies will be able to send payment notices to customers via mobile messengers, a change that may save up to 3 billion won ($2.7 million) a year, officials said Thursday. The Credit Finance Association said that it has revised the standard clauses concerning mobile text messages, allowing credit card operators to use mobile messengers such as KakaoTalk, Line and WiBee Talk. Credi...

When Sohn Tae-seung took office as Woori Bank CEO in December last year, his leadership had seemed to face multiple hurdles ahead, ranging from prolonged recruitment irregularities that led to the resignation of his predecessor to the uncertainties lingering in the domestic financial market. Over the past year, however, South Korea’s third-largest commercial lender in terms of operating profit h...

South Korea’s small and medium-sized enterprises are finding it increasingly difficult to hire foreign workers amid rising minimum wages and a prolonged economic downturn, a survey by a local business federation showed Sunday. According to the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business, or KBIZ, a majority of companies that opted not to hire foreign nationals this year cited a deteriorating b...

South Korea’s central bank chief on Monday urged Asia-Pacific economies to reinforce their resilience against potential external risk factors amid a fluctuating global financial environment. “We must enhance the general resilience of the regional economy so that drastic changes in capital flows stemming from external risks do not lead to systematic risks,” Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said in ...