Loan delinquency falls in S Korea

SEOUL, May 7 (Xinhua): Loan delinquency among South Korean banks kept its downward trend as banks wrote off sour loans, financial watchdog data showed Wednesday.

The delinquency ratio in bank loans, overdue more than one month, stood 0.85 per cent as of the end of March, down 0.1 per cent from a month earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

Local lenders cleared off delinquent loans ahead of the quarter end, exceeding the value of fresh sour loans, the watchdog said.

The loan write-off was 3.1 trillion won (US$3.03 billion) in March, higher than 1.9 trillion won in new loans.

The overdue rate for corporate loans slid 0.1 per cent from a month earlier to 1.02 per cent at the end of March, with the rate for household loans falling 0.09 percentage point to 0.66 per cent.

Despite the stable trend of loan delinquency, concerns remained over the sluggish private consumption and rising loan delinquency among small firms, the FSS said.