Korea’s total debt reaches 2.3 times its GDP: regulator

South Korea’s total debt has ballooned to more than double the value of its gross domestic product, the financial regulator said Tuesday, calling for all-out efforts to rein in corporate and household debt.

The country’s aggregate debt owed by the government, companies and households stood at 234 percent of its GDP as of the end of June, according to data by the Financial Supervisory Service.

The debt-to-GDP ratio came in at 152 percent in 2000 for Asia’s fourth-largest economy, before jumping to 202 percent in 2007 and 215 percent in 2010, the FSS data showed.

The regulator noted that the level of the total debt is not at a critical stage yet compared with troubled eurozone states such as Spain, whose debt ratio surpassed 250 percent in 2000 and hiked to 356 percent two years ago. That of Italy rose from 252 percent to 310 percent over the cited period.

Nevertheless, corporate and household debts should not be taken lightly, the FSS said. In particular, household debts here grew at a double-digit rate between 1999 and 2010, outpacing the country’s average expansion rate of 7.3 percent during the period.

“Recent sovereign rating upgrades reflect the fact that the ratio of government debt to GDP is considerably low at 34 percent,” an FSS official said. “However, ratings agencies have not given good marks to the country’s household and corporate debt problem.”

As public corporate debts also have surfaced as a bugbear for the economy, there have been growing calls among experts to reclassify public companies’ debts to be included in the government debt tally.

Kim Young-shin, an economist from Korea Economic Research Institute said, “The government should include public companies’ debts in its liabilities and oversee them with more transparency.

Ailing public firms should be gradually privatized.”

The FSS stressed the financial sector should step up efforts to boost its ability to absorb losses, adding it will reassess rules on curbing excessive cross-border capital movements.

The outstanding amount of Korea’s household debt, including credit purchases, hit a record 937.5 trillion won ($864 billion) as of end-September, according to the central bank. (Yonhap News)