SEOUL, July 3 (Xinhua) -- South Korean banks' loan delinquency ratio rose in April on higher borrowing costs, data from the financial watchdog showed Monday.
Bank loans overdue at least one month came in at 0.37 percent of the total at the end of April, up 0.04 percentage points from a month earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
It marked the highest in 32 months since August 2020.
After hitting bottom at 0.20 percent in June last year, the delinquency ratio had been roughly on the rise amid the higher policy rates.
The central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.50 percent for the third time in May, after increasing it by 3.0 percentage points for one and a half years through January this year.
Banks settled 900 billion won (688 million U.S. dollars) worth of non-performing loans in the month, lower than new delinquent loans amounting to 1.8 trillion won (1.4 billion dollars).
Excluding the settled bad loan, the delinquency ratio for new bank loans has increased from 0.04 percent in April to 0.07 percent in December last year, 0.09 percent in January this year and 0.08 percent in April.
The delinquency ratio for bank corporate loans gained 0.04 percentage points from a month earlier to 0.39 percent at the end of April, while the ratio for household loans rose 0.03 percentage points to 0.34 percent. ■
