Household debt rises again in June

Korean banks' household loans swung to an upturn in June following the previous month's one-off decline, central bank data showed Thursday.

Outstanding bank loans to local households came to 1,030.4 trillion won ($896 billion) as of end-June, up 6.3 trillion won from a month earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).

It marks a turnaround from the 1.6 trillion-won on-month decline in May, which was attributed to repayments of loans by customers after the initial public offering of battery maker SK IE Technology Co.

A large number of bank customers took out loans from local banks to apply for SK IE Technology's IPO subscription.

The central bank said June's solid growth resulted mainly from a surge in mortgages.

Banks' mortgage loans expanded by 5 trillion won on-month to 752.2 trillion won in June, compared with a 4 trillion-won increase the previous month.

Unsecured and other non-mortgage loans grew by 1.3 trillion won, a turnaround from a 5.5 trillion-won tumble.

In the January-June period, local banks' household loans soared by 41.6 trillion won, the largest first-half increase since data tracking began in 2004, according to the BOK.

Yonhap