South Korea

KG Mobility Co., the South Korean automaker formerly known as Ssangyong Motor Co. before going through bankruptcy, is seeking to revive its fortunes with a $30,000 electric sports utility vehicle, Bloomberg News reported. The carmaker Thursday unveiled four new vehicles at the Seoul Mobility Show, including the Torres EVX, its first electric car since conglomerate KG Group bought a majority stake in the firm in September 2022. Using lithium-iron-phosphate batteries made by BYD Co., the SUV has a driving range of 500 kilometers (310 miles) on a single charge.

The Justice Department is investigating last year’s collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin, adding the risk of U.S. criminal charges to the pressure on its creator, South Korean crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Southern District of New York have questioned former team members of Mr. Kwon’s company, Terraform Labs Pte. Ltd., in recent weeks and sought to interview others, the people said.

A downturn in South Korea's home prices is causing pain in the country's unusual rent-free rental system that benefited landlords and tenants alike during a long surge in residential property prices, Reuters reported. In the "jeonse" scheme, tenants put up a deposit typically worth as much as 70% of the home's value, then live without paying rent for two years until the landlord returns the full amount.

South Korea's producer inflation slowed in December for a sixth month, dropping to the lowest rate in 20 months, central bank data showed on Friday, Reuters reported. The country's producer price index stood 6% higher in December than a year ago, compared with 6.2% in November, according to the Bank of Korea. The annual rate slowed for a sixth consecutive month, from a near 14-year high of 10% in June, and marked the slowest since April 2021. The index fell 0.3% on a monthly basis, at the same pace seen in November, in its second month of declines.

South Korea's factory activity shrank for a sixth consecutive month in December, a business survey showed on Monday, as the global economic downturn and a local truckers' strike led to the worst slump in demand in 2-1/2 years, Reuters reported. The S&P Global purchasing managers' index (PMI) for South Korea manufacturers fell to a seasonally-adjusted 48.2 last month from 49.0 in November.

Sitting in a lake teeming with wildlife, several hours by train from Seoul, Korea’s Legoland is an unlikely poster child for the global struggle to fight inflation while maintaining financial stability. But a default on 205 billion won ($155 million) worth of debt by the theme park’s developer triggered the worst meltdown in South Korea’s 1,690 trillion won credit market since the global financial crisis, Bloomberg News reported.

Rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve are significantly increasing the cost of capital for South Korea’s startups, elevating the chance many may face bankruptcy in coming months, according to the nation’s Minister for SMEs and Startups, Bloomberg News reported. “US rate increases are too fast and too violent and we are puzzled,” Lee Young said in an interview in Seoul.

South Korea should avoid following Japan’s lead of using fiscal and monetary stimulus to combat the challenges of an aging economy, central bank Governor Rhee Chang-yong said, urging reforms instead to boost fertility, Bloomberg News reported. Aging is a rising concern in the developed world and Korea is among the hardest-hit together with Japan. South Korea shattered its own record for the world’s lowest fertility rate last year, adding to long-term pressure on policy makers to keep interest rates low and fiscal stimulus ample to boost growth.

Korean consumers were misled by some of the nation’s biggest financial firms and should get back the money they lost when a German property fund collapsed, South Korea’s financial watchdog recommended Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported. The six firms -- Shinhan Securities Co., NH Investment & Securities Co., Hana Bank, Woori Bank, Hyundai Motor Securities Co. and SK Securities Co. -- should repay the 430 billion won ($317 million) clients lost, a panel at Financial Supervisory Service said.

The meltdown of FTX has triggered a chain reaction in Korea's cryptocurrency-linked stocks, which saw their values plummet on the first trading day after one of the world's largest crypto exchanges filed for bankruptcy, the Korea Times reported. Shares of Com2uS, a game developer which listed its C2X token on the exchange in March, suffered a double-digit decline on Monday, dipping to a new eight-year low. Com2uS shares closed Monday at 61,900 won, down 14.74 percent, from the previous trading day. Other crypto-related stocks in Korea also went on a losing streak on the same day.