Liberty Korea Party lawmaker Yoon Sang-jik said on Nov. 6 that the total interest burden pertaining to treasury bonds is estimated at 105 trillion won in 2019 to 2023. For reference, the total was 88.8 trillion won from 2014 to last year.Earlier, the South Korean government applied a financing rate

With the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) provisionally concluded on Nov. 4, much attention is being paid to South Korea’s participation in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). South Korea decided last year to join the CPTPP, but the ma

SMEs and Startups Minister Park Young-sun met with Cédric O, Secretary of State for the Digital Economy of France, in Seoul on Nov. 5 to discuss the two countries’ startup- and smart manufacturing-related policies and seek further cooperation in those fields.At present, the Ministry of SMEs and Star

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which is a free trade agreement (FTA) led by China, was provisionally concluded on Nov. 4. In response, the United States Department of State released a report stressing the need for more involvement in the Indo-Pacific region. Although the Uni

South Korea, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) provisionally concluded the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The mega free trade agreement (FTA) accounting for one-third of the total GDP of the wor

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea International Trade Association announced on Nov. 3 that South Korea’s trade surplus with the United States fell approximately 6.8 percent on year for the first 10 months of this year after the revised KORUS FTA became effective at the beginni

South Korean Environment Minister Cho Myung-rae and Chinese Ecology and Environment Minister Li Ganjie presided over their annual meeting in Seoul on Nov. 4. They agreed to have high-ranking policy coordination meetings on a regular basis in February this year and the meeting in Seoul was the first

South Korean President Moon Jae-in met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Bangkok, Thailand on Nov. 4. Although they resumed their communication, any improvement in the relations between the two countries remains to be seen. Earlier, Japan said that there would be no summit talks with South

The Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) Authority has recently discussed cooperation with Imperial College London on its plan to build a startup/venture town in Songdo International City in Incheon, Korea.IFEZ Commissioner Lee Won-jae met with Prashanthini Jeyarajan, an industry partnerships and comme

The South Korean government announced on Oct. 31 that an amendment to the Act on the Measures for the Admission to International Financial Institutions passed the plenary session of the National Assembly. The purpose of the amendment is for South Korea to become a member of the Central American Bank

The South Korean government is exploring new models of economic cooperation with Japan and Southeast Asian countries. The effort takes into account the possibility of improved bilateral relations with Japan and is expected to help mitigate the ongoing tension between South Korea and Japan.The Minist

The South Korean and Japanese governments will have another round of talks related to the latter’s export curbs next month. The Seoul government is going to request the WTO to set up a panel for dispute settlement if the talks fail to reach an agreement.The Ministry of Economy and Finance of South K

The number of foreigners living in South Korea topped two million. The exact number as of the end of 2018 was 2,054,621, which is equivalent to approximately 4 percent of the total population of the country. Sixty percent of the foreigners were residing in Seoul and the surrounding capital area at t

Early this month, the OECD Secretariat proposed a unified approach so that digital taxes can be imposed on global manufacturing as well as IT companies if their global sales are above a certain level.Digital taxes are imposed on global Internet companies such as Google and Facebook. The approach pro

The Korea Employers Federation announced on Oct. 29 that the starting annual salary of college graduates working for large corporations in South Korea is 31 percent higher than that of their counterparts in Japan, the former is much higher than the latter in terms of comparison to the respective cou

The number of startups is dropping in the manufacturing sector of South Korea. This can be attributed to the negative outlooks of its semiconductor and display industries and uncertainties represented by the ongoing trade disputes between South Korea and Japan.The Ministry of SMEs and Startups annou

South Korea completed its domestic ratification procedure for the South Korea-U.K. FTA by its National Assembly passing the agreement on Oct. 28.The FTA, which is to cope with Brexit, immediately becomes effective in the case of a no-deal Brexit and becomes effective after the transition period othe

The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced on Oct. 28 that it detected 1,140 suspicious cases of illegal trademark preoccupation in 62 countries with regard to South Korean companies’ 279 trademarks.The cases include 594 in eight ASEAN member countries and 189 in 22 European countries. The fo

South Korea’s real GDP growth for the third quarter of this year and 2019 as a whole are estimated at 0.4 percent and less than 2 percent, respectively. The country’s annual real GDP growth was below 2 percent for only four years after 1953 and the four occasions were because of national economic cr

Credit Suisse said in its recent report that the average assets of South Korean adults are US$175,020, the number of South Korean adult millionaires is 741,000, and the global top 1 percent and top 10 percent in terms of asset size include 806,000 and 12,308,000 South Korean adults, respectively.Acc