S. Korean banks' loan delinquency rate climbs in Jan.

The delinquency rate on loans extended by South Korean banks, including household borrowing, edged up in January from the previous month, the financial watchdog said Monday.

The average delinquency rate of bank loans stood at 0.71 percent at the end of January, up 0.07 percentage point from a month earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

From a year earlier, the figure dropped 0.17 percentage point from 0.88 percent, it added.

Over the cited period, 1.7 trillion won (US$1.5 billion) worth of fresh loans were added, with 700 billion won of debts paid off, the FSS said.

The overdue rates of corporate debt climbed 0.09 percentage point to 0.86 percent from a month earlier, with those for household loans gaining 0.04 percentage point to 0.53 percent.

Loans with both the principal and interest overdue by more than one month are considered delinquent.

The outstanding amount of won-denominated loans came in at 1,264.3 trillion won as of end-January, up 8.7 trillion won, or 0.7 percent, from the previous month. Those extended to households reached 518.6 trillion won, up 400 billion won over the cited period, while corporate loans rose 8.4 trillion won to 714.1 trillion won. (Yonhap)