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  • Others

    Foreign investors return to KOSPI buying, powering rally above 8,000

    Foreign investors returned to net buying in the KOSPI market on Friday for the first time in 25 trading days, fueling a sharp rally that briefly sent the benchmark index soaring past the 8,400 mark during intraday trading. KOSPI opened 6.44 percent higher at 8,263.85, up 499.90 points from the previous session, and briefly surged as much as 8.5 percent to hit an intraday high of 8,424.13 before paring gains to close at 8,123.62, up 359.67 points, or 4.63 percent, on the day. The rapid advance in KOSPI futures prompted the Korea Exchange to activate a sidecar, temporarily halting program buy orders early in the trading session. Foreign investors played a pivotal role in KOSPI’s rebound, snapping a prolonged selling streak with net purchases of 2.12 trillion won ($1.4 billion) on the day. Institutional investors also lent strong support, buying a net 2.4 trillion won in stocks. The return to net buying came after nearly a month of heavy foreign outflows that had weighed on the market. Before Friday, overseas investors had sold a net 75.6 trillion won worth of KOSPI shares over 24 straigh

    3 MIN READBy Jun Ji-hye
    Foreign investors return to KOSPI buying, powering rally above 8,000
  • Economy

    Rate hike seen as strongest tool to support won as FX measures lose impact

    2 MIN READBy Lee Hyo-jin
    Rate hike seen as strongest tool to support won as FX measures lose impact
  • Economy

    Fraudulent ChatGPT Pro charges spark alarm over unauthorized use of stolen card data

    2 MIN READBy Lee Hyo-jin
    Fraudulent ChatGPT Pro charges spark alarm over unauthorized use of stolen card data
  • Policy

    5 nations sign AI alliance pact to shape global tech rules

    2 MIN READBy Jhoo Dong-chan
    5 nations sign AI alliance pact to shape global tech rules
  • Economy

    Korean won gains on renewed hope of U.S.-Iran peace deal, foreign net buying

    1 MIN READBy Yonhap
    Korean won gains on renewed hope of U.S.-Iran peace deal, foreign net buying
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CEO & Publisher: Oh Young-jinDigital News Email: webmaster@koreatimes.co.krTel: 02-724-2114Online newspaper registration No: 서울,아52844Date of registration: 2020.02.05Masthead: The Korea TimesCopyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.

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Economy

Finance minister holds meeting to discuss economic risks at home and abroad

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki holds an emergency meeting to discuss economic risk factors at home and abroad, March 22. YonhapFinance Minister Hong Nam-ki held an emergency meeting Tuesday to discuss economic risk factors at home and abroad, including growing inflationary pressure and global supply chain disruptions.Hong met with ranking officials at the finance ministry to discuss ways to tackle the set of economic risks and how to respond to them amid concerns over stagflation ― a mix of slumping growth and high inflation.The main agenda items of the meeting included the economic impact from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, trends in the foreign exchange market and ways to improve fiscal soundness, the ministry said.Hong stressed the need to devise policies to prevent such risk factors from undermining economic growth and financial stability during a change of government.President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol is set to take office May 10 with pledges to ease regulations to let the private sector lead economic growth and job creation.Earlier in the day, Yoon raised the need to create another ext

Mar 22, 2022
Finance minister holds meeting to discuss economic risks at home and abroad
Economy

President-elect may scale down assistance for Moon's New Deal fund

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) oversees state policy concerning the fund aimed at raising up to 220 trillion won ($180.1 billion) in investments for President Moon Jae-in's Korean New Deal initiative. Korea Times fileBy Yi Whan-wooPresident-elect Yoon Suk-yeol may scale down the government's assistance for a disputed fund aimed at realizing President Moon Jae-in's signature economic initiative, the Korean New Deal, according to financial sources, Tuesday.Sources said Yoon might cut state assistance for the fund as he urgently needs 50 trillion won ($40.9 billion) in relief funds as he promised to support small business owners and self-employed people hit by economic fallout from the pandemic. Funding the 50 trillion won is a tricky task. The country's national debt is snowballing fast and will reach up to 1,064 trillion won this year, making it impractical to draw up another round of the supplementary budget in addition to the 17 trillion won allotted by the Moon administration earlier this year.The 17 trillion won is the latest in a total of 10 rounds of supplementary budge

Mar 22, 2022By Yi Whan-woo
President-elect may scale down assistance for Moon's New Deal fund
Economy

NPS' dissenting votes weigh on financial firms

National Pension Service headquarters in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province / YonhapBy Lee Min-hyungMajor financial groups here face uncertain outcomes ahead of their regular shareholders meetings this week, as the National Pension Service (NPS) is highly likely to cast dissenting votes on key proposals as the largest shareholder of the nation's top four financial holding firms.The state-run pension fund has for years intervened in the decision-making processes of KB, Shinhan, Hana and Woori Financial Group, disapproving of such initiatives as leadership reshuffles and appointments of non-executive directors.The industry is paying particular attention to whether the NPS will oppose Hana Financial Group's plan to change up its leadership. Hana put the proposal on the agenda for its upcoming shareholders meeting to be held on Friday.The NPS holds a 9.19 percent stake in Hana, so chances appear slim that the fund's dissenting vote will end up blocking Hana's nomination of Ham Young-joo as chairman. But one risk factor is that the NPS' repeated disapproval may leave a negative impression on t

Mar 22, 2022By Lee Min-hyung
NPS' dissenting votes weigh on financial firms
Economy

Fitch cuts 2022 growth outlook for Korea to 2.7% amid Ukraine crisis

gettyimagesbank Global credit appraiser Fitch Ratings lowered its 2022 growth outlook for the Korean economy to 2.7 percent from 3 percent, Tuesday, citing the economic fallout of the Russian invasion of Ukraine."The rise in energy prices related to the Ukraine-Russia conflict will act as a drag on household consumption and business activity," Fitch said in a report on the 2022 global economic outlook.The report said, "Diminished global demand in 2022 will also weigh on the export sector, while supply-chain disruptions may take longer to ease."Fitch's downward revision came as the Korean economy faces growing uncertainty from the Ukraine crisis and the upsurge in COVID-19 cases.On Monday, Korea reported 353,980 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total caseload to 9,936,540, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The total caseload is expected to breach the grim milestone of 10 million, Tuesday, meaning 1 out of 5 Koreans have been infected wi

Mar 22, 2022
Fitch cuts 2022 growth outlook for Korea to 2.7% amid Ukraine crisis
Economy

Banks' bad loans decline in 2021 amid debt rollovers

gettyimagesbank Korean banks' nonperforming loans shrank in 2021 due in part to debt rollovers aimed at helping pandemic-hit businesses, data showed Tuesday.Bad loans at local banks came to 11.8 trillion won ($9.7 billion) at the end of December, down from the previous year's 13.9 trillion won, according to the preliminary data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).The regulator attributed the decline to a fall in overdue corporate loans, which totaled 10.2 trillion won as of the end of December, down from 12 trillion won a year earlier.Overdue household loans also shrank from 1.8 trillion won to 1.4 trillion won over the same period, the data showed.The decline came despite the fallout from the protracted COVID-19 pandemic, which hit small merchants and households hard.An FSS official said the drop in bad loans is not due to brisk business conditions but due to banks' debt rollovers aimed at supporting struggling small firms.As of the end of 2021, banks' out

Mar 22, 2022
Banks' bad loans decline in 2021 amid debt rollovers
Economy

Battery recycling crucial for ESG management: Samjong KPMG

gettyimagesbank By Yi Whan-wooThe rapid growth of the electric car market is fostering the recycling of discarded batteries and companies are being urged to capitalize on the market for salvaged cells as part of their environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) principles, according to Samjong KPMG.In a report released on Monday, the auditing company said the battery recycling market will expand 33 percent annually beginning in 2025 and will be worth $57.3 billion by 2040, as the number of such batteries are increasing in accordance with that of electric cars.“And this means that recycling of the discarded batteries will emerge as a keyword in ESG management,' Samjong KPMG added.A leading auditor in Korea, Samjong KPMG attributed the explosive demand for dead batteries to an increase in raw material prices due to disrupted supply chains. The batteries are useful as lithium, cobalt and other rare materials are extracted after disassembling them. The extract

Mar 22, 2022By Yi Whan-woo
Battery recycling crucial for ESG management: Samjong KPMG
Economy

Foreign financial firms urge Yoon to overhaul tax, regulatory schemes

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during a meeting after the launch of the presidential transition team in Seoul, Friday. Joint Press Corps-YonhapPresident-elect advised to create special financial zone, fintech complexBy Lee Min-hyungForeign financial firms have urged the incoming administration to be led by President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol to ease complex regulatory hurdles and reduce corporate taxes to make Korea become more attractive to overseas investors.Such views reflect a years-long controversy that platform giants such as Naver and Kakao took advantage of regulatory blind spots when expanding their financial businesses here. Existing lenders have cried foul over the rapid rise of the platform operators, saying that they would not have been able to do so if they had had to abide by the same regulations that conventional financial firms are required to follow.For some time now, major foreign-owned financial firms have conveyed their stance regarding these issues, but have made little progress, leading to the recent exodus of overseas banks and insurers.In November 2021, Citib

Mar 21, 2022By Lee Min-hyung
Foreign financial firms urge Yoon to overhaul tax, regulatory schemes
Economy

Korea's coffee imports hit new high in 2021

gettyimagesbank Korea's imports of coffee surged more than 24 percent to hit a new all-time high in 2021 on its growing popularity here, data showed Monday.The value of the country's coffee imports stood at $916.5 million last year, up 24.2 percent from the previous year, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service and industry sources.It marks the first time that Korea's coffee imports have exceeded the 1 trillion-won ($823 million) level in terms of the local currency.Last year's amount was also up 12.7 times from 20 years earlier.In terms of volume, Korea's coffee imports also reached a new high of 189,502 tons in 2021, up 7.3 percent from a year earlier.Korea's coffee imports have been on a steady rise since 2013, excluding 2018, as more Koreans enjoy the drink.Last year, Switzerland was the largest exporter of coffee products to Korea with $130.1 million, followed by Colombia with $128.2 million, Brazil with $112.2 million and Ethiopia with $75.7 milli

Mar 21, 2022
Korea's coffee imports hit new high in 2021
Economy

Yoon administration to freeze property tax

An apartment complex in Seoul Korea Times fileBy Lee Kyung-min The government is expected to freeze property tax for the entire homeowners including owners of one expensive home with an officially appraised value of over 1.1 billion won ($905,000) subject to the Comprehensive Real Estate Tax, according to government ministries, Sunday. The hefty Comprehensive Real Estate Tax is imposed for retaining expensive homes. The measure is part of the real estate market policy revisions pledged by President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, whose win by a razor-thin margin was underpinned in considerable part by public fury over the housing prices doubling under the Moon Jae-in administration due to two dozen botched government policies. Higher housing prices led to a tax spike for homeowners, almost all of whom passed the unexpected burden to tenants in the form of higher rent, threatening their stable living arrangements. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to announce the changes in the rate of officially appraised home value for this year, Wednesday, to be followed by specifi

Mar 20, 2022By Lee Kyung-min
Yoon administration to freeze property tax
Economy

Banks ease restrictions on lending ahead of new administration

A sales office of a commercial bank in Seoul. YonhapBy Lee Min-hyungBanks are on track to ease restrictions on lending ahead of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's inauguration in May.Starting Monday, Woori Bank will normalize its “jeonse” loan program, enabling borrowers to receive up to 80 percent of their lump sum deposit. The “jeonse” process is a unique housing rental system. Tenants pay a deposit (which is refunded at the end of the contract) when renting homes with no monthly rent, unless they need to acquire a loan in order to secure the property, in which case they typically pay the interest on the loan each month.Last October, however, financial authorities introduced a set of tight lending restrictions whereby tenants could receive jeonse loans for an increase in lease payments only, when renewing their contracts.The restriction was introduced as part of the government's measures to control soaring household debt and freeze the housing bubble here.Nevertheless, with Yoon set to take office in less than two months, expectations are that such tight lendin

Mar 20, 2022By Lee Min-hyung
Banks ease restrictions on lending ahead of new administration
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