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Yoon Ja-young

Korea Times AI content 1 team Reporter

Yoon Ja-young is in charge of articles translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times. She is interested in improving the newspaper through AI.

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Economy

Korea ranks 43rd in corruption-perceptions index

By Yoon Ja-youngKorea ranked 43rd in the corruption-perceptions index among 175 countries, Transparency International said Wednesday.Despite notable economic growth, Korea is still lagging behind its peers in terms of transparency. It has especially made no improvement in terms of transparency during the past few years.Transparency International, a Berlin-based global organization dedicated to anti-corruption, released the 2014 corruption-perceptions index Wednesday.The index measures how corrupt a country’s public sector is perceived to be, based on surveys and assessments. It is one of the most widely used indicators of corruption worldwide.Korea scored 55 points, making it 27th among the 34 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries.Denmark was perceived to be the most transparent, scoring 92 points, followed by New Zealand. Finland and Sweden, the Nordic countries that are generally perceived to be transparent, proved to be so again, ranking third and fourth, respectively. In Asia, Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong were transparent. Singapore

Dec 3, 2014By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

Korea feared to follow Japan on deflation path

By Yoon Ja-youngConcern over deflation is increasing after inflation fell to the lowest level in nine months. Economists warn that Korea’s economy could suffer Japanese-style deflation, if the low level of inflation continues.According to Statistics Korea, consumer prices rose by 1 percent in November from a year ago, marking the lowest growth in 9 months. This is far below the central bank’s target of an increase between 2.5- and 3.5-percent.The government attributes the low inflation to a good crop harvest and a fall in global oil prices. However, core inflation excluding agricultural and oil products also stood at a mere 1.6 percent.The government expects the planned cigarette price hike to help pull up inflation. The governing and the main opposition parties agreed to raise cigarette prices by 2,000 won per pack as suggested by the government. It expects the hike to pull up inflation by 0.62 percentage points, but economists say that won’t solve the sluggish economy, which is the main cause of the low inflation.Consumers may welcome low inflation, but if it pers

Dec 2, 2014By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

Stagnant wages add to the economic concern

By Yoon Ja-young Real wages in relation to inflation rose only 0.08 percent in the third quarter, marking the smallest growth in two years and nine months. Economists say that stagnant wages can lead to sluggish consumption as well as deflation.According to data from the Bank of Korea and the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the real wages of regular workers at workplaces with five workers or more averaged 2.96 million won a month in the third quarter, up from 2.95 million won a year ago, and the lowest growth since the fourth quarter of 2011.The growth of real wages represents nominal income growth minus inflation. It reflects the real purchasing power of workers.The growth rate has continued to fall for six consecutive quarters since the second quarter of last year when it stood at 3.4 percent. Some economists expect real wages to fall into negative figures during the fourth quarter.While the country’s GDP grew by an average of 3.2 percent annually between 2008 and 2013, and labor productivity by an average of 3 percent, the real wage of workers grew by an average of 1.

Dec 1, 2014By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

Hana expands loans for the working class

Hana Bank and Korea Exchange Bank employees offer financial consulting service to those who don’t have time to visit banks, at Wonkwang University in North Jeolla Province in this file photo. / Courtesy of Hana Financial GroupBy Yoon Ja-young Hana Bank and Korea Exchange Bank (KEB), two banking arms under Hana Financial Group, have offered 1.5 trillion won in loans tailored for the working class as of September.They plan to increase the loans to 2 trillion won next year.The money was provided in the form of “Saehuimang Holssi” (seed of new hope) loans or “Bakkueodrim” (switch) loans. The “Saehuimang Holssi” loan, which the local banks launched jointly, aims to lower the barriers for low-income households or people with poor credit ratings.“Bakkueodrim” loans aim to help working-class people switch from non-bank lenders ― where the interest burden is huge ― to a bank loan at a lower interest rate.Hana Bank and KEB, which plan to integrate soon, are leading the way with these loans. Hana Financial Group said

Dec 1, 2014By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

Woori Bank sale collapses again

By Yoon Ja-youngThe government failed to sell its major stake in Woori Bank as only China’s Anbang Insurance submitted a bid, Friday, the deadline for the bidding, which requires at least two bidders for the deal to be valid.The Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC) said Friday that China’s Anbang Insurance was the only bidder that applied to acquire a 30 percent stake in the bank.The government had injected 12.8 trillion won in the Woori Finance, and it has been collecting money by selling subsidiaries including provincial banks and a securities company.The core of the privatization plan, sale of the Woori Bank, however, has now fell apart again. After three failed trials, the Public Funds Oversight Committee under the FSC came up with a new plan of selling the bank in a two-track manner. The 30 percent of the 56.97-percent stake held by the KDIC will be sold to a single bidder, along with managerial control over the bank, while the remaining 26.97 percent will be sold to multiple investors.There were two probable candidat

Nov 28, 2014By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

Industrial activities remain sluggish

Service sector's output grows, manufacturing production shrinksBy Yoon Ja-youngThe country’s industrial output grew 0.3 percent in October from a month earlier, the first gain in three months, Statistics Korea said Friday.Production in manufacturing and mining shrank 1.6 percent month-on-month, reflecting the lack of momentum for economic recovery.Service sector output rose 0.8 percent. The manufacturing sector’s operation ratio fell to 73.5 percent from 75.1 percent the previous month.“Despite the slight increase in all industry production, the momentum of recovery is still feeble at best as manufacturing sector remains sluggish,” a Statistics Korea spokesperson said.The official said sluggish sales of handsets since subsidies were capped also negatively affected overall industry activities.Retail sales fell 0.4 percent from September, as sales in durable goods such as handsets and other communication devices dropped 6.2 percent.Facility investment fell 4.6 percent from a month earlier as investment in machinery and transport facilities fell. Facility investm

Nov 28, 2014By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

State think tank calls for further rate cuts

By Yoon Ja-young A government-run think tank says the central bank should cut its key interest rate, citing the risk of falling into deflation, as happened in Japan.Korea Development Institute (KDI) Director Lee Jae-joon said at a seminar on Tuesday that concern over deflation was growing in Korea amid continuing sluggish demand and low inflation.  Inflation has remained at around 1 percent, short of the central bank’s 2.5-3.5 percent target.Lee said Korea had lessons to learn from Japan’s “lost decade.”“Japan ended up in deflation because it failed to implement appropriate policies after the collapse of the bubble in the early 1990s,” he said. “It is a lesson with regard to monetary policy.”Following the bubble in late 1980s, the Japanese economy fell into recession with the collapse of the real estate market and stock market in 1990.As the recession extended beyond the general economic cycle, deflation set in from the mid-1990s, according to Lee.He said sluggish demand had basically triggered Japan’s deflation.“D

Nov 25, 2014By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

One in 10 change jobs

A total of 2.6 million people changed their jobs last year. This means one in 10 changed jobs. / YonhapBy Yoon Ja-young One in four people who changed jobs last year were forced to do so due to massive layoffs and other reasons.According to the household financial and welfare survey data compiled by Statistics Korea, Financial Supervisory Service and the Bank of Korea, 24.9 million people had jobs in 2013. Among them, 2.6 million people said they had changed jobs within the same year. This means that one in 10 people changed their jobsWhen asked why they did so, 39.8 percent cited personal reasons while 19 percent said they were dissatisfied with working conditions.However, 718,000 said they made the decision to change jobs against their will.The number of people forced to change jobs increased by 100,000 last year from the previous year.A total of 384,000 people were forced to change jobs due to layoffs, while 334,000 said that they had found new jobs when their contracts expired.The low-income households were especially hit hard by the massive layoff. Among those in the bottom

Nov 24, 2014By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

Conglomerates to face tougher regulations in appointing financial CEOs

By Yoon Ja-young In the past Chaebol chairmen were able to appoint anybody they wanted as executives of the groups’ financial arms, but they won’t be able to continue that practice.  The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said Monday that with the corporate governance code taking effect on Dec. 10, financial companies will have to disclose details such as the executive candidate’s career and reasons why he or she is recommended for the post through an executive recommendation committee.Financial businesses with more than 2 trillion won in assets will be subject to the code. They include all financial holding companies, as well as most of the financial arms of the country’s chaebol, such as Samsung, Hyundai, Hanwha and Dongbu.Samsung Group, for instance, has Samsung Life Insurance, Samsung Fire& Marine Insurance, Samsung Securities, Samsung Card and Samsung Asset Management. Hanwha has a life insurer, securities firm and asset management; while Dongbu has life and non-life insurers, as well as a securities company.The chaebol chairmen and managem

Nov 24, 2014By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

IBK under US probe

By Yoon Ja-young American prosecutors are investigating The Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) over a 2012 deal involving Iran.IBK has stressed that the Korean prosecution wrapped up its probe into the same case without finding any wrongdoing.An intermediary trading company set up by a Korean-American told IBK it would import marble from Dubai to export to Iran, IBK said.IBK said the trading company had submitted all documents needed for such transactions, and the bank was involved in 87 company deals worth $996 million.The trading company then withdrew about 1 trillion won from the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) account at IBK, but sent the money to third-party accounts in nine countries, not the marble-exporting company in Dubai.The Seoul prosecution examined the incident and accused the company’s owner of violating the foreign exchange trading act. The Korean-American made about a 17 billion won commission.The prosecution, however, determined that IBK had not violated the law as it had followed all due procedures, based on documents the trading company submitted.However, in an

Nov 21, 2014By Yoon Ja-young
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