South Korea's national debt nears 490 tln won in 2013: gov't data

South Korea's national debt neared 490 trillion won ($470.8 billion) in 2013 as the government increased borrowing to make up for its deficit, a government report showed Tuesday.

According to the report by the finance ministry, the debt owed by the central and provincial governments came to 489.8 trillion won in 2013, up 46.6 trillion won from a year earlier. The debt represents 34.3 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

The central government's debt rose 38.9 trillion won on-year to 464 trillion won. The increase stemmed mostly from its borrowing to fill in 24.3 trillion won in deficit.

The debt owed by provincial governments also expanded 7.7 trillion won to 25.7 trillion won, the report showed.

Meanwhile, the government collected a cumulative 124.4 trillion won in national taxes during the January-July period this year, up 1.8 trillion won from the same period a year earlier.

This, however, represents 57.5 percent of the government's annual target, which is lower than the previous year's 60.7 percent, the report showed. (Yonhap)