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Household loans extended by banks here grew for the first time in five months in April despite the government's curbs on lending, and rising borrowing costs, central bank data showed Wednesday.
Banks' outstanding household loans came to 1,060.2 trillion won ($829.8 billion) as of the end of April, up 1.2 trillion won from the previous month, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).
This marked the first month-on-month increase since December, and can also be compared with a 1 trillion won decline tallied in March.
The April rise came despite the government's curbs on lending amid worries over runaway household debt, and rising borrowing costs from the central bank's move to raise its policy rate to tame rising inflationary pressure.
Last month, the BOK raised its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 1.5 percent, the fourth rate increase since August last year. It has hinted at further increases in the months to come.
Observers expect the new Yoon Suk-yeol government, which took office Tuesday, to push to ease the current tough curbs on lending amid signs that household debt has been stably managed in recent months.
The BOK said that the rise in household loans in April marked the slowest pace of growth ever recorded in the month. The previous record was a 1.5 trillion won rise registered in April 2010.
Of the total, mortgages expanded 2.1 trillion won to 786.8 trillion in April, while other loans, mostly unsecured lending, shrank 900 billion won to 272.1 trillion won, the data showed.
Meanwhile, banks' corporate lending grew for the fourth straight month in April due to seasonal reasons such as the need to pay value-added taxes due this month.
Corporate loans came to 1,106 trillion won, up 12.1 trillion won from a month earlier, the data showed. The month-on-month growth was faster than the previous month's 8.6 trillion won rise. (Yonhap)
