SEOUL, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's household debts kept a record-breaking trend amid the near-record-low borrowing costs, central bank data showed Thursday.
Household credit, which includes household debts and purchase on credit, reached a new high of 1,493.2 trillion won (1.3 trillion U.S. dollars) as of end-June, up 1.7 percent or 24.9 trillion won (22.2 billion U.S. dollars), from three months earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
The quarterly growth slowed down compared with the same period of last year when the household credit increased 28.8 trillion won (25.7 billion U.S. dollars).
However, the household debts broke previous records as the BOK refrained from tightening its monetary stance.
The central bank raised its benchmark interest rate in November last year to 1.50 percent from an all-time low of 1.25 percent, the first rate hike in almost six and a half years. Since then, the bank refrained from altering the rate.
The U.S. Federal Reserve increased its target rate to a range of 1.75-2.00 percent, which surpassed the BOK's policy rate.
Households rushed to purchase new home with borrowed money amid the near-record-low borrowing costs.
Household debts gained 22.7 trillion won (20.3 billion U.S. dollars) from three months earlier to 1,409.9 trillion won (1.26 trillion U.S. dollars) as of end-June.
Purchase on credit grew 2.2 trillion won (2.0 billion U.S. dollars) to 83.2 trillion won (74.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the same period.
