S.Korea's bank loan delinquency ratio stays below 1 pct for 3 quarters

Source: Xinhua | 2019-05-29

The loan delinquency ratio among South Korean banks hovered below one percent for the third consecutive quarter through the first quarter of 2019, financial watchdog data showed Tuesday.
The ratio of bank loans, overdue at least three months, stood at 0.98 percent of the total as of end-March, up 0.01 percentage point from three months earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
Despite the rise, the bad debt ratio stayed below one percent since the third quarter of last year.
New delinquent loans increased by 3.3 trillion won (2.8 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-March quarter, less than half of the 7.1 trillion won (6 billion U.S. dollars) expansion in the previous quarter.
Banks resolved bad debts worth 2.9 trillion won (2.4 billion U.S. dollars) during the quarter.
The delinquency ratio for household loans gained 0.02 percentage points from three months earlier to 0.25 percent as of end-March, but the figure for corporate loans stood unchanged at 1.43 percent.