April 25, 2024

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Household lending extended by South Korea’s major banks continued to rise in March, with loans for self-employed businesses showing marked growth, market data showed on April 2.

The country’s five major lenders -- KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Woori, KEB Hana and NongHyup -- had 576.23 trillion won ($508.58 billion) in outstanding household loans as of end-March, up 2.32 trillion won from the previous month.

Of that, mortgage loans came to 412.75 trillion won, up 2.63 trillion won from the previous month, data showed.

Lending by self-employed businesspersons also rose 1.42 trillion won from the previous month to stand at 223.52 trillion won in March. The figure has been growing at a faster clip since the beginning of this year.

But credit loans by individuals fell 501.3 billion won to 100.3 trillion won amid slowing domestic demand and concerns over the global economic slowdown, according to analysts.

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)