SEOUL, April 24 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's corporate bond sale logged a double-digit fall last month owing to lower funding demand from both industrial and financial companies, financial watchdog data showed Thursday.
The issuance of corporate bonds tumbled 22.6 percent over the month to 21.35 trillion won (15 billion U.S. dollars) in March, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
Bonds, sold by industrial companies, amounted to 4.20 trillion won (3 billion dollars) in March, down 61.0 percent from a month earlier.
The double-digit reduction came amid rising external uncertainties, affected by the U.S. tariffs imposition.
Financial companies-issued bonds decreased 4.0 percent to 15.23 trillion won (10.7 billion dollars), while the issuance of asset-backed securities (ABS) more than doubled to 1.92 trillion won (1.3 billion dollars) last month.
The country's central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage to 2.75 percent in February after lowering it by the same percentage in October and November last year.
Equity financing, including initial public offering and rights issuance, reached 469 billion won (329.7 million dollars) in March, up 5.8 percent from a month earlier. ■