SEOUL, March 28 (Xinhua) -- South Korean wage workers' debt fell in 2022 due to rapid interest rate hikes, statistical office data showed Thursday.
Debt owed by wage and salary workers to banks and non-banking financial institutions averaged 51.15 million won (38,000 U.S. dollars) at the end of 2022, down 1.7 percent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.
It marked the first reduction since relevant data began to be compiled in 2017.
The country's central bank raised its policy rate by 3.0 percentage points between August 2021 and January 2023.
The average mortgage loan for paid workers added 0.6 percent, but their credit loan diminished 6.0 percent in 2022 compared to the previous year.
The loan delinquency ratio for salary workers rose 0.02 percentage points from a year earlier to 0.43 percent at the end of 2022, marking the first increase in four years.
The ratio for those aged 29 or younger advanced by the fastest pace of 0.09 percentage points, but the ratio among those in their 70s or older declined by 0.05 percentage points in the cited year. ■