South Korea's exports rose 9.5 percent in February from a year earlier to extend their gains for the fourth consecutive month on robust shipments of chips, with global COVID-19 vaccination projects also set to speed up the recovery of the business sentiment. Exports came to $44.8 billion last month, compared with $40.9 billion a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Imports rose 13.9 percent to $42.1 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of

South Korea and Switzerland have agreed to extend their bilateral currency swap deal that helps expand financial exchanges between the two countries, Seoul's central bank said Monday. The 11.2 trillion-won ($10.1 billion) currency swap, which had been scheduled to expire today, will be put in place for another 5 years, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said in a statement. The swap agreement enables Korean won and Swiss francs to be purchased and repurchased between the two central banks under a limit

Amid lingering market uncertainties alongside rising US Treasury yields, local institutional investors seem to have started betting against the equity market, investing in inverse exchange traded funds. Inverse ETFs are designed to make money when target stocks or underlying indexes decline in value. According to data compiled by the nation’s sole securities exchange operator Korea Exchange, investment companies, including stock brokers, bought some 200 billion-won ($177.6 million) wor