SEOUL, Aug. 31 (Korea Bizwire) — Real wages, after adjusting for inflation, experienced a decline of 1.5 percent year-on-year during the first half of the current year, as revealed by a recent survey. This marks a significant turning point since 2011 when the Ministry of Employment and Labor expanded its survey coverage to encompass “enterprises [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean banks’ second-quarter net profit was flat from the previous quarter as an increase in the Korea Development Bank’s (KDB) net profit offset a decline in ordinary banks’ net profit, preliminary data showed Tuesday. The combined net profit of 20 banks in the April-June period was 7.1 trillion [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean companies are choosing to reduce the issuance of corporate bonds and are instead turning to bank loans to secure funds during an unexpectedly prolonged period of high interest rates, data showed Monday. Net repayments in the corporate bond market have shown a consistent upward trend, with the [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s consumer prices are expected to grow at a faster pace in the coming months after a monthslong downtrend due mainly to rising global oil prices, officials said Sunday. Consumer prices, a key gauge of inflation, are forecast to rise more than 3 percent from a year earlier, [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — A growing number of young South Koreans are struggling to cover even modest monthly interest payments due to job instability, data showed Tuesday. Some 24.5 percent of South Koreans in their 20s, who availed microloans for their sustenance, faced difficulties in meeting interest obligations as of Aug. 4, according [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s major banks have recently reported multi-year record profits. Ironically, they are now implementing voluntary retirement programs, even for employees in their 30s. At Shinhan Bank, labor and management recently reached an agreement on voluntary retirement conditions. They have decided to accept applications for several days, starting this [...]
SEJONG, Aug. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — The government is considering extending a tax cut scheme on fuel consumption, which is set to expire this month, through December, sources said Tuesday, amid soaring energy costs and high inflation. According to the sources, the Ministry of Economy and Finance has been mulling extending the measure and plans [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — K-Bank, a South Korean internet-only bank, reported Monday that its second-quarter net income dropped 31 percent from a year earlier on increased loan-loss reserves. Net income stood at 14.7 billion won (US$11 million) in the April-June period, compared with a net profit of 21.3 billion won a year earlier, [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean banking sector has become entangled in a series of massive corruption scandals, revealing serious weaknesses in its internal control systems. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) on Wednesday launched an emergency investigation after receiving allegations that employees of DGB Daegu Bank, located in the southeastern city of Daegu, [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of retail investors accessing mobile trading systems (MTS), or smartphone trading, is rapidly rising amid sharp fluctuations in the share prices of secondary battery materials producers. According to industry sources, the daily active users (DAU) for five major brokerages — Mirae Asset Securities Co., Samsung Securities Co., [...]