South Korea's household lending by banks rose at the slowest pace in five months in September, but mortgage loans continued the upside trend amid the government's toughened financial measures to cool down the real estate market, central bank data showed Monday.
Outstanding household loans from lenders came to 749.2 trillion won ($664.8 billion) as of the end of last month, according to the data by the Bank of Korea. This marks a 4.9-trillion won increase compared to the previous year, but the rise is the lowest in five months. The on-month gain decreased from the previous month's 6.6 trillion won.
Mortgages rose 3.3 trillion won on-month to 561 trillion won in September, expanding from a 3.1 trillion won gain in August.
(Yonhap)
The hike in mortgage lending came as the government tightened lending rules meant to curb rapidly growing household debt.
South Korea's overall household debt came to 1,388.3 trillion won as of the end of June, up 10.4 percent from a year earlier, according to data compiled by the BOK.
In September, meanwhile, banks' outstanding corporate loans came to 778.8 trillion won, up 5 trillion won from the previous month. (Yonhap)
