Loans to self-employed grow at slower pace in third quarter

Korean depository institutions’ loans to self-employed people and companies grew at a much slower pace in the third quarter than three months earlier on improving business conditions, the central bank said Wednesday.

Outstanding industrial loans extended by banks and non-bank depository institutions came to 1,366 trillion won ($1.24 trillion) as of end-September, up 37.8 trillion won from the end of June, according to data from the Bank of Korea.

The increase was nearly half the 69.1 trillion-won increase recorded in the second quarter, while it was larger than the 20.5 trillion-won gain a year earlier. The on-year growth rate hit 15.4 percent for the July-September period, the highest since data tracking began in 2008.

Loans to services companies, which include the self-employed, grew by 28.9 trillion won in the third quarter.

Yonhap