SEOUL, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- South Korean banks' loan delinquency ratio stayed near a record low in July as banks were encouraged to extend loan maturity, financial watchdog data showed Thursday.
Bank loans, overdue at least one month, stood at 0.22 percent of the total at the end of July, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
It was slightly up 0.02 percentage point from a month earlier, but it remained near a record low of 0.20 percent.
The near-record-low delinquency ratio came as the government encouraged banks to extend maturity for loans to small merchants and microbusinesses troubled with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bad debt ratio has been on the decline since May 2018, but expectations ran high for growing delinquent loans amid higher borrowing costs.
To curb runaway inflation, the country's central bank launched the tightening of its monetary policy in August last year, having hiked its key policy rate from 0.5 percent to 2.5 percent.
Delinquency ratio for banks' corporate loans added 0.02 percentage point from a month earlier to 0.24 percent at the end of July, and the ratio for household loans rose 0.01 percentage point to 0.19 percent. ■