S.Korean households' surplus fund hits record high in Q1

Source: Xinhua | 2020-07-10

South Korean households' surplus fund hit a record high in the first quarter as consumers refrained from spending money on worry about the COVID-19 outbreak, central bank data showed Thursday.

Net fund asset of households and nonprofit organizations reached 66.8 trillion won (55.9 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-March quarter, more than doubling from 27.8 trillion won (23.3 billion U.S. dollars) a year earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

It marked the biggest quarterly figure since the BOK began compiling the data in 2008. The net fund asset is fund investment minus borrowed fund.

People refrained from consumption on concern about an economic fallout from the COVID-19 outbreak. Consumers avoided outside activities such as shopping, traveling and eating out as the virus spread peaked here in February and March.

Households' fund investment in financial assets jumped to 81.8 trillion won (68.4 billion U.S. dollars) during the first quarter from 35.6 trillion won (29.8 billion U.S. dollars) a year earlier.

The borrowed fund from financial firms nearly doubled to 15 trillion won (12.6 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter compared with a year earlier.