SEOUL, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's household debts continued to rise last month amid the near-record-low borrowing costs, central bank data showed Tuesday.
Debts owed by households to financial institutions, including banks and non-monetary institutions, grew 10.4 trillion won (9.2 billion U.S. dollars) in October, according to data unveiled jointly by the Bank of Korea (BOK), the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service.
Bank loans to households amounted to 598.2 trillion won (527.7 billion U.S. dollars) as of end-October, up 7.7 trillion won (6.8 billion U.S. dollars) from a month earlier.
Demand for mortgage loans increased ahead of the implementation of measures to control speculative investment in the real estate market.
Bank credit loans to households expanded 2.9 trillion won (2.6 billion U.S. dollars) in the month, marking the biggest monthly growth.
The fast growth in household debts came amid the prolonged low rate trend. The BOK refrained from altering its benchmark rate since the bank raised it to the current 1.50 percent from an all-time low of 1.25 percent in November last year.
Household debts by non-monetary institutions grew 2.7 trillion won (2.4 billion U.S. dollars) last month ahead of the implementation to tighten standard for overall loans to households.
For the first 10 months of this year, household debts expanded 60.5 trillion won (53.4 billion U.S. dollars). It was the lowest increase since 2015, the financial regulator said.
