South Korea's household credit hit a fresh high in the second quarter, with its growth picking up from three months earlier on a sharp rise in mortgage lending, South Korea's central bank data showed Tuesday.
Household credit totaled 1.04 quadrillion won (USD1.02 trillion) as of end-June, up 15.1 trillion won from the previous quarter, according to the Bank of Korea.
The second-quarter gain is about four times that of the 3.5 trillion won gain logged in the January-March period.
Household credit refers to credit purchases and loans that have been extended by financial institutions, including commercial lenders and mutual savings banks.
The faster growth was credited to a rise in mortgage lending as some banks expanded their loan products to boost the portion of their fixed-rate loans.
Outstanding household loans came in at 982.5 trillion won as of end-June, up 14.8 trillion won from the previous quarter.
Credit purchases reached 57.5 trillion won, rising 300 million won from the previous quarter, according to South Korea's News Agency (Yonhap) reported.
South Korea's household credit is forecast to rise in the third quarter following the government's stimulus package that became effective this month.
Data by the Financial Services Commission showed that outstanding mortgage lending in the local banking sector increased by 3.9 trillion won from end-July to 343.2 trillion won as of Aug. 22. The gain is nearly double the 2 trillion won increase logged in the same period last year.
Separate data by the local unit of Standard Chartered showed that applications for mortgage loans between Aug. 1-22 reached 927.5 billion won, tripling from the previous month.
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