April 20, 2024

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South Korea’s household debt reached a record high in the third quarter of the year, but it grew at the slowest clip in more than 15 years amid government measures to curb it, central bank data showed Nov. 21.

Outstanding household credit -- household loans and credit card spending -- came to 1,572 trillion won ($1.33 trillion) as of end-September, up 3.9 percent from a year ago, according to the data by the Bank of Korea.

The gain was the lowest since the second quarter of 2004, when the country’s household credit grew 2.7 percent.

From three months ago, household credit climbed 1 percent, or 15.9 trillion won.

Although a mountain of household debt is unlikely to pose a systemic risk to the Korean economy in the near future, the sheer size of household debt is placing the economy under pressure and constraining private spending.

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