Household lending extended by South Korea’s major banks picked up the pace in February due to the growth in credit loans, market data showed Tuesday. The country’s five major lenders — KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Woori, KEB Hana, and Nonghyup — had 573.91 trillion won (US$509.87 billion) in outstanding household loans as of end-February, up 2.53 trillion won from the previous month.

The growth in February is faster than that in the previous month when the figure rose 1.01 trillion won, the smallest clip in 22 months, due to the marginal growth in mortgage loans. The faster growth last month is attributable to the increase in credit loans, which rose 8.7 billion won in February from the previous month, compared with the one-month fall in the previous two months. Home-baked mortgages also grew 2.64 trillion won to 410.12 trillion won in February, faster than the previous month’s gain of 2.37 trillion won, according to the data.

(Yonhap)