South Korea's public sector debt rose to 957.3 trillion won ($815 billion) in 2014, or 64.5 percent of the country's gross domestic product, the government said Thursday.

According to the finance ministry, the country's public sector debt, or D3 which takes into account both general government and non-financial corporation debt, and deducts internal transactions, rose by 58.6 trillion won from the year before.

In 2013, the country's public sector debt stood at 898.7 trillion won, or 62.9 percent of the GDP, up 77.7 trillion won from the year before.

Of the total gain, 38.4 trillion won was incurred by government-issued bonds to stabilize the foreign exchange market and cover the deficits in its general account.

General government debt stood at 620.6 trillion won, equal to 41.8 percent of the GDP and up 2.2 percentage points from the previous year. D2 only calculates national debt and non-profit public institution debt.

Non-financial corporation debt stood at 408.5 trillion won or 27.5 percent of the country's economy, with 71.7 trillion won internal transaction between government agencies being deducted from total.

The latest findings showed that compared to the seven Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries that release D3 debt figures, Seoul's debt vis-a-vis the GDP was the second lowest after Mexico, with Japan, Portugal, Canada, Britain and Australia all having larger liabilities.

In terms of D2, Asia's fourth-largest economy had the fifth most favorable number as measured in debt to GDP among 27 OECD members that could be checked.

"Despite the rise in overall public sector debt, the country is doing better than others," the finance ministry, which is in charge of the country's economic policy setting, said. "Compared to 2013, the pace of debt increase has slowed down thanks to aggressive efforts to pay back debt."

Despite public debt being manageable at present, Seoul is committed to pushing for fiscal balance, the ministry said.

"The government will maintain expansionary fiscal policy stance to keep alive the economic growth momentum, but the goal is to keep general government debt around 40 percent of the GDP by 2019," an official said. (Yonhap)