Household loans up 10 pct in March

SEOUL, April 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's household loans extended by local banks rose 10 percent in March from a year earlier due to increased mortgages, central bank data showed Wednesday.

Outstanding household loans from local lenders came to 713.9 trillion won (US$621 billion) as of end-March, compared with 649 trillion won from a year earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).

Compared with February, the amount rose by 2.9 trillion won.

Mortgages climbed 2.6 trillion won on-month to 538.5 trillion won in March. In February, mortgages rose 2.1 trillion won from a month earlier, the BOK said.

South Korea's outstanding household credit -- which is composed of household loans and credit card spending -- came to 1,344.3 trillion won at the end of 2016, up 11.7 percent from a year earlier.

In March, local lenders' outstanding corporate loans came to 758.5 trillion won, up 200 billion won from the previous month.

entropy@yna.co.kr
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