Last year, the increase rate of loans taken out by the the self-employed surpassed by tenfold the rise of the number of self-owned businesses, data by Statistics Korea and the Bank of Korea showed.

With the anticipated rise of interest rates, the debt repayment burden is expected to augment for those running their own businesses.

A total of 5,682,000 are registered as self-employed as of the end of last year, up 1.2 percent from the previous year.

According to data from the Bank of Korea, some 535.3 trillion won ($505 billion) have been taken out on loans by those self-employed, up 11.5 percent from the end of 2016.

The amount surveyed here includes those taken for business purposes but also household loans. (khnews@heraldcorp.com)