South Korea's household credit hit a new record high of 1,089 trillion won as of the end of December last year largely due to rate cuts and the easing of leading rules, the central bank said Thursday.
The figure represents an increase of 29.8 trillion from a revised 1,059.2 trillion won tallied three months earlier, and a 6.6 percent rise from a year earlier, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said.
The gain in the fourth quarter marks the highest quarterly growth since the central bank began collecting related data in 2004.
By lender type, the gain can be broken down as follows:
- Household lending by commercial and specialized banks increased by 17.7 trillion won, following the previous quarter’s rise of 12.3 trillion won.
- Household lending by non-bank depository corporations grew by 5.2 trillion won, after having increased by 5.3 trillion won three months earlier.
- Household loans extended by other financial corporations rose by 4.7 trillion won, after the previous quarter’s increase of 3.2 trillion won.
Household loans totaled 1,029.3 trillion won, up 27.6 trillion won from three months earlier, while merchandise credit reached 59.6 trillion won, up 2.2 trillion won, according to the BOK.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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