S Korea sees bank loan delinquency rate decline in Nov

South Korean lenders' delinquency ratio for won-denominated loans dropped to an 11-month low in November amid the local economy showing signs of recovery from the financial crisis, the financial watchdog said Monday.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the overall delinquency rate of bank loans stood at 1.1 percent in November, down 0.09 percentage point from October and lower than 1.1 percent recorded at the end of Q3 2009.

The figure also marked the first annual decline since end-April 2008, as it moved down 0.08 percentage point year-on-year, the FSS said.

While the November delinquency ratio for corporate loans made a monthly fall of 0.12 percentage point to 1.55 percent, the figure for household loans dropped 0.04 percentage point to 0.55 percent, mainly due to the 0.04 percentage point drop in mortgage delinquencies, the FSS added.

The growth in the delinquency rate has been steadily slowing since March, after shooting up 1.67 percent at the end of February.

Source: Xinhua