Household loans up 9.8% in April

South Korea's household loans extended by banks rose 9.8 percent in April from a year earlier due to increased mortgages, central bank data showed Monday.

Outstanding household loans from lenders came to 718.6 trillion won ($637 billion) as of end-April, compared with 654.3 trillion won from a year earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea.

Compared with March, the amount rose by 4.6 trillion won.

Mortgages climbed 3.3 trillion won on-month to 541.8 trillion won in April. In March, mortgages rose 2.6 trillion won from a month earlier, the BOK said.

South Korea's outstanding household credit -- which is composed of household loans and credit card spending -- came to 1,344.3 trillion won at the end of 2016, up 11.7 percent from a year earlier.

In April, banks' outstanding corporate loans came to 765.1 trillion won, up 6.6 trillion won from the previous month.

Separately, the Financial Services Commission said that household lending by all financial institutions rose by 7.3 trillion won in April from a month earlier.

The figure represents a drop from a 9 trillion-won increase in April last year.

The pace of growth has been stabilized due to a hike in market rates and measures taken by financial firms to better manage risks associated with household lending.

The commission did not give the overall figure for household lending by financial lenders. (Yonhap)