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The global financial crisis and economic slowdown are impacting hardest on society¡¯s vulnerable, including the self-employed, marginal enterprises, and households with bad credit ratings.
The National Statistical Office said on Sunday that the number of those self-employed, on the bottom rung of the economic ladder, decreased 56,000 in the past year to 5.98 million -- falling below the six-million mark for the first time since 2002 when the number once soared to 6.2 million due to many starting new businesses in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Sogang University professor Kim Kwang-doo said,¡°A contagion of crisis has started. The collapse of the weak will accelerate as partner companies¡¯ bankruptcies and unemployment increase and the financial sector becomes insolvent.¡±
The number of individuals on the verge of becoming credit delinquents is also rapidly rising. The number of cases where people asked questions regarding credit recovery or submitted applications to the Credit Counseling and Recovery Service is on the increase, from 11,700 in July to 13,400 in August and over 14,000 in October.
Meanwhile, as banks try to recover their funds, an increasing number of businesses are going bankrupt. The company insolvency rate, which had been falling since April, turned upward again in September, when 203 companies nationwide went insolvent. As many as 14 construction companies went belly-up last month, a 50 percent increase from this year¡¯s monthly average of 10.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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