Debt per household in S. Korea rises 4.6 pct last year

SEOUL, Feb. 24 (Yonhap) -- The average debt per household in South Korea rose 4.6 percent in 2018 from a year earlier, the central bank said Sunday.

The debt jumped to 77.7 million won (US$69,000) last year from 74.3 million won a year earlier and from 42.9 million won in 2008, according to the Bank of Korea.

In the past decade, the per household debt has steadily grown as people have increasingly taken loans from financial institutions for home purchases and to cover rising living costs.

During the 2015-2016 period, per household debt soared after the then Park Geun-hye administration announced a set of stimulus measures to boost the lackluster real estate market. It also urged financial institutions to extend loans at record low rates to help people buy homes.

At the end of December 2018, the country's overall household debt reached 1,534.6 trillion won, up 5.8 percent from the same month of 2017.

The growth rates began to slow down in 2017, when the incumbent Moon Jae-in government took office and began to adopt stricter regulations on new loans amid rising home prices.

kyongae.choi@yna.co.kr
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