(CCTV Finance Economic Information Network) In South Korea, individual businesses engaged in catering, retail and other industries account for more than 20% of the total number of employed people. Recently, inflation in South Korea has remained high, and many self-employed businesses have difficulties in business.
Zhu Hongyu, a special correspondent of the Finance and Economics Channel, said that every two or three stores in the well-known Xincun Business District in Seoul, South Korea, have posted "closed" or "store rental" notices. According to the data released by the Korea Real Estate Institute, in the first quarter of this year, the vacancy rate of stores in South Korea reached 13.7%. Even in such commercial places as Gangnam and Litaiyuan in Seoul, vacant shops can be seen everywhere.
Mr. Liu, 60, has been running a Korean restaurant for six years. Because of good location and affordable prices, his restaurant has a number of regular customers. But recently, Mr. Liu really felt the impact of high inflation. In March this year, the price of Chinese cabbage rose by 36% year on year, and the price of all kinds of food materials, such as chili powder, radish, onion and pork, also rose by 10% to 30% year on year. In addition, labor costs, rent, water and electricity costs and other costs continued to rise, so the actual profit was very small. As for whether to raise the price of vegetables, Mr. Liu was in a dilemma.
Yoo Toh hyun, owner of a restaurant in Seoul, South Korea: I'm afraid that customers will not come if the price rises, but there will be no profit if the price does not rise. I'm very entangled. Up to now, I have been living on loans, but now the loan interest has risen from 2% to 6%, coupled with the large increase in fixed project expenditure, it is almost unsustainable.
Data shows that last year, the closure rate of the catering industry in South Korea was 10%, the highest since 2005. Most of the self-employed businesses that are still operating are also heavily in debt. Statistics show that nearly 60% of South Korea's self-employed businesses rely on loans to maintain their business. At the end of March this year, the total debt of South Korea's self-employed businesses was 1112 trillion won (about 5.9 trillion yuan), an increase of 51% over 2019.
