Bond issuance in South Korea rose sharply in April from the previous month due mainly to a surge in corporate debt sales, data showed Monday.

The value of bonds sold in Asia's fourth-largest economy came to 83 trillion won ($74.1 billion) last month, up 9.3 trillion won from a month earlier, according to the data from the Korea Financial Investment Association.

April's jump represents a drastic turnaround from an on-month decline of some 720 billion won in March.

Sales of corporate bonds surged by 7.5 trillion won on-month to 15.8 trillion won as local companies scrambled to sell bonds ahead of expected interest rate hikes.

The issuance of currency stabilization and other state bonds rose 1 trillion won to 26.8 trillion won, with sales of special bonds climbing 1.8 trillion won to 8 trillion won.

Sales of environment, social and governance (ESG) bonds surged by 3.4 trillion won to 11.33 trillion won. ESG bonds are a type of sustainability debt offering aimed at financing corporate activities in environmentally friendly and sustainable projects

As of end-April, the value of outstanding bonds in the country stood at 2,366 trillion won, up 28 trillion won from the previous month.

Foreign investors bought a net 6.5 trillion won worth of South Korean bonds in April, down from 15.7 trillion won, with their holdings of local bonds increasing by 3.1 trillion won to an all-time high of 173.99 trillion won. (Yonhap)