February 2025
12Feb

Poverty hits older adults harder in fast-aging society

Kim Young-soon, an office cleaner in her early 70s, says she grapples with high costs of living as her disposable income has been decreasing in recent years. Disposable income refers to the amount of money that is left for personal expenses and savings, after taxes, insurance, interest and other payments. “The employer would not hike my salaries, due to the high vacancy rate of office buildings amid the sluggish economic growth,” Kim said, adding she is financially distressed with high borrowing...

February 12, 2025
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11Feb

South Korea. Concerns grow over sustainability of national pension fund amid decreasing subscribers

The number of national pension subscribers continues to decline due mainly to the low birthrate and aging population, data from the National Pension Service (NPS) showed Sunday, raising concerns over its sustainability. In contrast, the number of recipients is increasing, pushing the current national pension system toward a risk of fund depletion. But discussions on ways to make the pension system more sustainable have been delayed. According to the NPS, the total number of national pension subscribers stood approximately at 21.81...

February 11, 2025
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December 2024
10Dec

South Korea. Number of newlyweds falls below 1 mil. in 2023, nearly half childless

The number of newly married couples in Korea dropped below 1 million for the first time in 2023, with nearly half without children, data showed Tuesday. Newlyweds refer to couples who had been married for five years or less. In 2023, the number came to 974,000, down from 1.03 million the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. This marks the first time the number of newlyweds has fallen below 1 million since the agency began collecting relevant data in...

December 10, 2024
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November 2024
13Nov

Danish pension fund pushes for Japan, Korea to abandon coal

PensionDanmark, Denmark’s $51 billion pension fund, is calling on Japan and South Korea to completely wean themselves off coal-generated power by 2030. “We have decided not to finance new coal power planned after 2023 anywhere in the world," Jan Kæraa Rasmussen, head of ESG and sustainability at PensionDanmark told AsianInvestor. "Our ask for utilities in developed countries, including in Japan and South Korea, is that they present comprehensive plans to phase out coal as soon as possible. And that should be closer...

November 13, 2024
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October 2024
31Oct

South Korea: Pension subscribers allowed to change pension fund managers starting today

Financial institutions in South Korea, including insurance companies, have been busy with plans to attract customers who wish to switch the companies managing their pension accounts. Starting today (31 October), pension subscribers are allowed to shift their accounts to other financial companies without having to terminate the pension plans with the pension fund manager they wished to move from. According to the Financial Supervisory Service, as of 30 September 2024, total pension funds amounted to KRW400.79tn ($290bn). Of this total, insurance companies accounted for KRW93.27tn...

October 31, 2024
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29Oct

Aging demographics push South Korea’s insurance market to $191 billion

As South Korea's population ages rapidly, the demand for health and retirement-focused insurance products is forecasted to drive steady growth in the nation’s insurance market. According to a recent GlobalData report, South Korea's insurance sector is expected to expand from KRW 218.3 trillion (US$167.1 billion) in 2025 to KRW 249.7 trillion (US$191.2 billion) by 2029, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.4%. “The South Korean insurance industry contracted by 7.5% in 2023 due to slower economic growth, which impacted...

October 29, 2024
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21Oct

The problem of aging is intensifying in Korean rural areas. In particular, in the case of rice farme.

71.1% of rice farmers aged 65 or older majority of people in their 70s and older Rice consumption per person has decreased by 14.8 kg over 12 years. The problem of aging is intensifying in Korean rural areas. In particular, in the case of rice farmers, more than 70% of elderly farmers aged 65 or older were found. According to the "Rice Consumption Trend Analysis" published by the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation on the 21st, the proportion of farmers aged 65...

October 21, 2024
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18Oct

Parametric Pension Reform Options in Korea

By Daniel Baksa, Boele Bonthuis, Si Guo & Zsuzsa Munkacsi Population aging in Korea will pose substantial challenges to the financial sustainability of its public pension system. Under current policies and plausible assumptions, public pension spending can increase by as much as 4 percent of GDP during 2020-70, while contribution revenue will largely stay constant. This expected rise in public pension spending mainly reflects the increase in the old-age dependency ratio (and therefore the number of pension recipients), the deceleration...

October 18, 2024
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09Oct

Korean public pension fund trailing peers on support for E&S votes, study finds

Korea’s National Pension System (NPS) is falling behind other large public pension funds on proxy voting, according to a study by local policy think tank the Economic Reform Research Institute (ERRI). With $818 billion in AUM, NPS is the second-largest pension fund in the world after Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund. However, analysts at ERRI said an inadequate voting policy on sustainability issues means the fund consistently ranks low among peers on support for global ESG proposals. The study compares NPS with six European,...

October 9, 2024
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September 2024
30Sep

Interview: “Focusing on well-being over numbers is solution to low birth rates”

The United Nations Population Division announced in November 2022 that the global population had surpassed 8 billion. This marks a doubling from 4 billion in 1974, a span of just 48 years. The world’s population exceeded 2 billion in 1927 and 1 billion in 1805. Over just 200 years, the global population has increased eightfold. However, the UN forecasts that due to a general slowdown in growth rates, the world population will reach 9 billion by 2037. Population growth has...

September 30, 2024
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