Corporate failures hit 8-month high in August

The number of Korean corporate bankruptcies rose to an eight-month high in August as the local economy loses steam amid the protracted eurozone debt crisis, the central bank said Wednesday.

The number of companies that went belly-up totaled 117 in August, up from 95 tallied in July, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The August data marked the most failures since the number of corporate bankruptcies hit 128 in December 2011.

Meanwhile, the number of newly established companies came in at 5,828 in August, down from a record high of 7,127 in the previous month, the BOK added.

The default rate of corporate bills -- bonds, checks and promissory notes -- reached 0.12 percent last month, unchanged from the previous month, the BOK said.

The BOK froze the key rate at 3 percent for the second straight month in September after cutting the rate in July. The Korean economy is widely expected to grow in the 2 percent range this year due to faltering exports and sluggish domestic demand. (Yonhap)