Bond issuance in South Korea shrank in March from the previous month due mainly to a tumble in corporate debt sales, industry data showed Friday.

The value of bonds sold in Asia's fourth-largest economy stood at slightly over 74 trillion won ($66.4 billion) last month, nearly 720 billion won smaller than a month earlier, according to the data from the Korea Financial Investment Association.

Sales of corporate bonds declined by about 4.1 trillion won, and the issuance of currency stabilization bonds also dropped by some 1.5 trillion won.

As of end-March, the value of outstanding bonds in the country stood at 2,338.6 trillion won, up 21.6 trillion won from the previous month.

Foreign investors bought a net 15.7 trillion won worth of South Korean bonds in March, with their holdings of local bonds climbing by 9.4 trillion won to an all-time high of 170.9 trillion won. (Yonhap)