South Korea’s industrial output and capital investment increased and its consumption slightly decreased in May this year whereas the production, consumption and investment decreased without exception in the previous month. In May, both the cyclical component of leading index and the cyclical compone
Korea Expressway Corp. announced on June 30 that it has signed a 104-billion-won contact with the Bangladeshi government to operate and manage the country's N8 Expressway.The N8 Expressway is a 55-km, four-lane highway and is the first expressway in Bangladesh. It is Asian Highway No. 1 that con
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) announced on June 30 that it took part in a regular general meeting of the Utilities Service Alliance (USA), an American nuclear power plant operator group, for three days from June 28 to 30 (local time).The event, held in Idaho of the United States, was attended b
The investor-state dispute (ISD) between the South Korean government and Lone Star Funds reached the end of the procedure on June 29 and the final conclusion is around the corner.Lone Star took over Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) in 2003 and sold it to Hana Bank in 2012 to get 4.7 trillion won. The dispu
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) agreed with the Kazakhstan Nuclear Power Limited Liability Partnership (KNPP) for cooperation in the construction of new nuclear power plants in Kazakhstan.The two companies signed an MOU at Lotte Hotel in Seoul on June 28 to cooperate in the development of new nuc
The U.S. and South Korean governments are expected to initiate IPEF-related negotiations in August. The anti-China economic framework is equivalent to 32.3 percent of the total population of the world and 40.9 percent of the global total GDP.The framework was proposed by U.S. President Joe Biden in
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport initiated investigations into speculative real estate transactions by foreigners together with the Ministry of Justice, the National Tax Service and the Korea Customs Service.From January 2020 to May this year, a total of 20,038 housing transactions
The Korea International Trade Association (KITA) sent an economic delegation to Washington, D.C. on June 21. The 13 delegation members include LG, SK Hynix, Hyundai Motor Co., SeAh Steel and Exicon.There, KITA Chairman Koo Ja-yeol met with Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty on
A groundbreaking ceremony will be held next month for the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster, which will become SK Hynix’s next-generation memory semiconductor production base. President Yoon Suk-yeol is expected to personally attend the event and announce the government’s comprehensive support strategy f
Korea’s trade deficit, which started in March of this year, is highly likely to continue in June. Korea is expected to post the largest-ever semi-annual trade deficit in the first half of this year.According to the Korea Customs Service, Korea's export amount (provisional value on customs cleara
The demonstration and dummy satellites on Korea Space Launch Vehicle-II (KSLV-II) were successfully put into orbit at the second attempt on June 21. South Korea has become the seventh country in the world that is capable of launching an application satellite with a weight of at least 1 ton on a spac
The Minimum Wage Commission held a meeting on June 21 in order to determine next year’s minimum wage. Prior to the meeting, the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) called for a minimum wage of 10,890 won per hour, 18.9 percent higher than this
The South Korean government announced on June 16 that the maximum corporate tax rate in South Korea would be adjusted downward from 25 percent to 22 percent.The adjustment is to induce more investment and employment by reducing the tax burden on large corporations. Last year, the government’s corpor
The South Korean government has decided to increase tax incentives for large corporations investing in the semiconductor, EV battery and vaccine industries. It decided not to do so in the display industry, although it was said that the technology should be classified as a national strategic technolo
The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced on June 15 that it would bring in by August the 26,000 foreign workers with the E-9 visa who could not enter South Korea for the past two years due to COVID-19.“We are also planning to help 28,000 with a work permit given this year enter the country, ex
Truckers ended their strike in eight days, but concerns still remain. The government’s stern stance did not last and the strikers succeeded in expanding the freight charge guarantee that initially caused the strike, which means the financial burden of enterprises will increase.The freight charge gua
The Ministry of Economy and Finance announced on June 15 that South Korea came in 27th out of 63 countries in the national competitiveness assessment of the IMD. In the assessment that started in 1989, South Korea came in 41st in 1999, 22nd in 2011 to 2013, and 23rd in 2021. This year, South Korea s
The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on June 14 that the number of South Korean researchers increased from 375,176 in 2011 to 558,045 in 2020 and the total number of those directly taking part in R&D activities and research assistants is currently 747,288.The number of South Korean full time-eq
The Korea Customs Service announced on June 13 that South Korea’s exports totaled US$15.1 billion in the first 10 days of this month, down 12.7 percent year on year. In that period, South Korea’s exports to China fell 16.2 percent from a year ago.On the other hand, its imports jumped 17.5 percent to
The Korea Cargo Workers Union (KCWU) entered the sixth day of strike, and petrochemical companies’ shipments dropped to 10 percent or so of their normal level. On June 12, the Korea Petrochemical Industry Association urged the KCWU to stop its strike. According to it, the average daily shipments are