- The government is set to gradually reduce corporate taxes by as much as 5 per cent by 2013 to enhance business investment, a measure that Seoul expects sees a W8.6 trillion worth of tax cut.

- The Ministry of Strategy and Finance says it expects this year’s economic growth to be around 6 per cent and to create 350,000 new jobs, the projection that is downsized from the previous goal of an annual growth rate of 7 per cent and 600,000 new jobs. But it admits the goal is not easily achievable, by saying it ‘tries to accomplish the goal,’ not definitely saying that it will.

- A group of 15 chicken-meat producers have recently filed an appeal at the Fair Trade Commission to ask the agency to allow price-fixing amid slowing business environments. There is an exception to the law that lets companies temporarily collude to fix prices, but in the last ten years there has been no such case that is permitted by the state agency.

- Kim Sung-ho, NIS appointee, is reported to have established a foundation called ‘Happy World’ and collected a 1.5 bn worth of donation from 20 businesses right after he retired from Justice minister in last December. The donation came while rumors swirled that he would be appointed as new NIS head.

- This year’s government policy on the property market is to stabilize the market and assure a sound supply of housing, which does not see a dramatic change from the goals of the previous government. It is also hard to expect any deregulation for the time being for the sake of market stability.

- A total of household debts surpassed W630 trillion last year, which translates into a debt of W38.42 m per household, says a report released by Bank of Korea. Households’ bank loans decreased a lot to W17.4 trillion last year from W40.7 trillion in 2006 due to loan restraints, but credit cards debt jumped by W3.7 trillion from a year earlier.