SEOUL, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's corporate bond sale logged a double-digit growth last year due to strong refinancing demand, financial watchdog data showed Wednesday.
The issuance of corporate bonds came to 234.81 trillion won (176 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023, up 28.6 percent from the previous year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
It was attributed to robust refunding demand from both industrial and financial companies.
The country's central bank had left its key rate unchanged at 3.50 percent since January last year after hiking it by 3.0 percentage points for the past one and a half years.
Bonds, sold by industrial companies, soared 42.5 percent over the year to 43.28 trillion won (32.4 billion dollars) in 2023.
Financial companies-issued bonds advanced 26.1 percent to 174.13 trillion won (130.5 billion dollars) last year, while the issuance of asset-backed securities (ABS) increased 22.3 percent to 17.4 trillion won (13 billion dollars).
Equity financing, including the initial public offering and rights issuance, stood at 10.86 trillion won (8.1 billion dollars) in 2023, down 50.5 percent from the previous year. ■
