S.Korea’s household lending rate hits nearly 9-year high in June

SEOUL, July 29– South Korea’s household lending rate hit the highest in nearly nine years last month due to policy rate hikes, central bank data showed Friday. The weighted average rate for new bank loans to households gained 0.09 percentage points over the month to an annualized rate of 4.23 percent in June, according to the Bank of Korea. It marked the highest in…

SEOUL, July 29 (Xinhua) — South Korea’s household lending rate hit the highest in nearly nine years last month due to policy rate hikes, central bank data showed Friday.

The weighted average rate for new bank loans to households gained 0.09 percentage points over the month to an annualized rate of 4.23 percent in June, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

It marked the highest in almost nine years since September 2013. The central bank began to tighten its monetary policy stance in August last year to curb surging inflation.

Rate for mortgage loans to households went up 0.14 percentage points to 4.04 percent last month, and credit loan rate advanced 0.22 percentage points to 6.00 percent.

The proportion of fresh fixed-rate household loans accounted for 18.4 percent of the total in June, up 1.0 percentage point from the previous month on expectations for higher borrowing costs.

The weighted average rate for banks’ corporate loans increased 0.24 percentage points from a month earlier to an annualized rate of 3.84 percent in June, marking the highest in over seven years since February 2015.

Lending rate for big corporations picked up 0.24 percentage points to 3.59 percent, and the rate for small firms added 0.27 percentage points to 4.06 percent last month. Enditem