S. Korean banks' loan delinquency rate edges up in Oct.

The delinquency rate on loans extended by South Korean banks edged up in October from a month earlier as new debts were added, the financial watchdog said Thursday.
  
The average delinquency rate for bank loans stood at 0.90 percent at the end of October, up 0.04 percentage point from a month earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
   
The amount of fresh bad loans worth 1.8 trillion won (US$1.62 billion) outweighed the 1.3 trillion won worth of cleared bad debts in October.
   
The delinquency rates for both corporate and household loans rose. The overdue rate for corporate loans was up 0.02 percentage point to 1.09 percent. That for household loans rose 0.06 percentage point to 0.65 percent.
   
The outstanding amount of won-denominated loans stood at 1,242.5 trillion won as of end-October, up 15 trillion won, or 1.2 percent, from the previous month.
   
Those extended to households reached 506.7 trillion won, up 6.4 trillion won over the cited period, while corporate loans added 8.9 trillion won to 705.3 trillion won, the watchdog said. (Yonhap)