SEOUL, May 21 (Xinhua) -- South Korean banks' loan delinquency ratio fell in three months due to more bad loan settlements than new delinquent loans, financial watchdog data showed Wednesday.
Bank loans, overdue at least one month, slipped 0.05 percentage points from a month earlier to 0.53 percent at the end of March after going up for the past two months, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
New delinquent loans came to 3.0 trillion won (2.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the cited month, lower than the settlement of non-performing loans worth 4.1 trillion won (2.9 billion dollars).
The delinquency ratio has roughly been on the rise after hitting a bottom at 0.20 percent in June 2022 on the back of lingering uncertainties over massive household debt.
The country's central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 2.75 percent in February, after lowering it by the same percentage point in October and November last year.
Excluding the settled bad loans, the delinquency ratio for fresh bank loans stood at 0.12 percent in March, unchanged from the previous month.
The delinquency ratio for bank corporate loans declined 0.06 percentage points from a month earlier to 0.62 percent at the end of March, while the ratio for household loans decreased 0.02 percentage points to 0.41 percent. ■
