The South Korean government has approved new projects worth 13.8 trillion won (US$11.5 billion) under the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) to be implemented by 2026, with 6.5 trillion won to be disbursed. Established in 1987, the EDCF is a fund for concessional loans aimed at supporting
Korea Development Bank (KDB) and Korea Ocean Business Corporation announced on Feb. 7 that negotiations on the sale of Korean container shipping company HMM have been held with a consortium of Harim Group’s Pan Ocean and JKL as a preferred bidder, but their meeting finally ended empty-handed.“During
Korea’s current account surplus reached US$35.5 billion in 2023. This was mainly because the volume of goods exports reaching a yearly high at the end of 2023.The current account surplus stood at US$7.41 billion in December, according to a December 2023 provisional balance of payments data released
The author is an analyst for NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at junsup@nhqv.com -- Ed.WFG’s CET1 ratio is now at 11.9%. While we positively view y-y improvement in the figure, we believe that CET1 ratio needs to be actively strengthened in order for WFG to meet market expectations for
The Korea Exchange (KRX) announced on Feb. 6 that it will open the “30-Year Treasury Futures Market” from Feb. 19 to promote the advancement of the government bond market and hedge against risks from long-term interest rate fluctuations. This marks the first time in 16 years since the introduction o
Due to the strength of the U.S. dollar, the foreign exchange reserves decreased last month for the first time in three months.According to the statistics of the “Foreign Reserves as of the End of January 2024” publication released by the Bank of Korea (BOK) on Feb. 5, South Korea’s foreign reserves
The government has decided to announce measures in February to address the risk of foreign investors’ failure to settle foreign exchange payments as part of the structural improvements in South Korea’s foreign exchange market, which are set to begin in earnest in July.The plan is to manage the risks
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has raised its global economic growth forecast for this year, but lowered its economic growth forecast for South Korea. While the organization said that global trade markets such as markets of semiconductors and information technology
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has announced plans to conduct a comprehensive investigation aimed at eradicating the common practice of illegal short selling by global investment banks (IBs).In its business plan announced on Feb. 5, the FSS stated, “We will crack down on market disruptions
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, who visited Korea to expand the artificial intelligence semiconductor ecosystem and met with top executives of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, is now set to visit American semiconductor firm Intel.According to industry sources on Feb. 1, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger announced
The ruling People Power Party has decided to prioritize the passage of an amendment to the Korea Export-Import Bank Act in a February extraordinary session of the Korean National Assembly in order to secure a second contract worth 30 trillion won for arms exports to Poland.According to sources in th
The sale of ECORBIT, which is considered the key element in the normalization of Taeyoung Engineering & Construction, is gaining momentum with the selection of lead managers. UBS and Citigroup Global Markets Securities, two global investment banks (IBs), have been assigned the task.According to sour
Cho Dong-chul, the president of Korea Development Institute (KDI), publicly issued a stark warning on government debt, going so far as to state, “The country will collapse.” In particular, he cautioned that South Korea’s national debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio could skyrocket to over 250
With about one week to go until the end of negotiations for the sale of HMM, new uncertainties are affecting the future of the negotiations as global shipping industry alliances begin to reorganize. With the management of HMM in limbo as Denmark’s Maersk and Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd form a new alliance
The Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) announced on Jan. 29 that it has established its fifth overseas hub, following the opening of offices in New York, London, Singapore, and San Francisco.The new hub is the Mumbai office in India, marking the KIC’s first overseas presence in an emerging market. T
SoftBank Ventures Asia is officially changing its company name to SBVA from beginning of February 1st after The Edgeof acquired the company from SoftBank Group Corp.(SBG) in June of last year. The new SBVA embraces the concept of technological singularities and the broader impacts of the virtues of
As international oil prices and refining margins both experienced a simultaneous decline in the fourth quarter of last year, the oil industry’s performance was once again placed in a state of emergency.In the worst-case scenario, four major oil companies -- SK Energy, GS Caltex, S-Oil, and HD Hyunda
The Export-Import Bank of Korea (Korea Eximbank) announced on Jan. 25 that it will establish and operate a “Saudi Desk” to support projects in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Desk of Korea Eximbank is expected to play a specialized role in handling business related to projects in
Experts are anticipating that the economic growth rate for South Korea will reach 2.2 percent this year. This aligns with the forecasts presented by the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), both indicating a 2.2 percent growth. It slightly surpasses the Bank of Korea’s projection of
Local customs officials have apprehended executives of a distribution company involved in the smuggling of U.S.-made semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) chips, classified as strategic items, into China after importing them for domestic use. This marks the first instance of customs discovering the