Household debt on the rise

The average household debt in Korea grew 12.7 percent over the past year mainly due to increased borrowing from financial institutions, a report showed yesterday.

According to the report by Statistics Korea, household debt averaged 52.05 million won ($46,143) as of March of this year, compared with 46.18 million won tallied in February of last year.

Household financial debt grew 14.2 percent on-year to 35.97 million won, while security deposit holdings from home rentals rose 9.5 percent to 16.08 million won over the cited period, the report showed.

Total assets held by households expanded 7.5 percent to 297.65 million won. Net assets, which excluded borrowing, rose 6.5 percent to 245.60 million won. Of the total assets, 73.6 percent were in real estate, with 23.2 percent made up financial holdings, such as bank deposits, stocks and bonds, the report showed.

Yonhap