Household Debt Soars Another W10 Trillion in a Month

Household loans from commercial banks increased W9.7 trillion in July alone to W1,040 trillion despite government attempts to quell sky-high borrowing, the Bank of Korea said Wednesday (US$1=W1,159).

The increase was even steeper than in June.

The government has been trying to stop people from borrowing, but to no effect. A BOK official said, "We need to monitor the effect of the government's tougher loan regulations to suppress the white-hot real estate market further in upcoming months."

Corporate loans stood at W1,034 trillion, up W11.3 trillion from June.