▶주메뉴 바로가기

▶본문 바로가기

The Korea Herald
검색폼

THE INVESTOR
March 29, 2024

Economy

Korea’s household debt rises 6% in 2016

  • PUBLISHED :December 20, 2016 - 16:25
  • UPDATED :December 20, 2016 - 16:25
  • 폰트작게
  • 폰트크게
  • facebook
  • sms
  • print
[THE INVESTOR] South Korean household debt hiked in 2016 from a year earlier as people borrowed money from banks and other financial companies to buy homes, and invest in real estate and businesses, government data showed on Dec. 20.

The average household debt amounted to 66.55 million won (US$56,000) as of end-March this year, up 6.4 percent from a year earlier, according to data compiled by Statistics Korea.

Of the total, 70.4 percent, or 46.86 million won, was financial loans, up 7.5 percent on-year, with the rest in security deposits that must be paid back down the line.

Among those who have financial loans, 40.3 percent reported that they borrowed money to buy homes, 21.1 percent said they invested for their businesses and 18.8 percent for real estate investment.

Of those households that have financial loans, 70.1 percent said paying back both principal and interest is burdensome, unchanged from the previous year.

Of those households that feel burdened by the need to pay principal and service their debts, 74.5 percent said they cut their savings, investments and spending, according to the data.

The data also presented that 64.5 percent of all South Korean households had debt, down 0.1 percentage point from the previous year.

Total debt of households was 18.4 percent of their assets as of end-March this year, up 0.4 percentage point. Meanwhile, financial debt accounted for 67.5 percent of all savings, up 4.6 percentage points on-year.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)

EDITOR'S PICKS