Seoul [South Korea], October 6: South Korean households' surplus fund fell in the second quarter due to a sharp decrease in stock investment, central bank data showed on Friday.
The net surplus fund, or the value of financial assets minus financial liabilities owned by households and non-profit organizations, came in at 28.6 trillion won (21.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the April-June quarter, down from 52.9 trillion won (39.2 billion dollars) in the same quarter of last year, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
Financial assets, such as deposits and securities, totaled 44.4 trillion won (32.9 billion dollars) in the second quarter, down from 89.0 trillion won (66 billion dollars) a year earlier.
The holdings of equity securities and investment fund dived from 24.6 trillion won (18.2 billion dollars) to 200 billion won (148.4 million dollars) in the cited period, while the deposit holdings shrank from 39.3 trillion won (29.2 billion dollars) to 28.2 trillion won (20.9 billion dollars).
Financial liabilities amounted to 15.8 trillion won (11.7 billion dollars) in the second quarter, down from 36.1 trillion won (26.8 billion dollars) a year earlier.
Households refrained from borrowing money as borrowing costs were on the rise.
The BOK had left its policy rate unchanged at 3.50 percent since January, after increasing it by 3.0 percentage points for the past one and a half years.
Source: Xinhua