Korea's Household Debt Grows 2nd Fastest in the World

Published on 2019/03/24 | Source

Korea ranks second in the world in terms of the growth of household debt, and the ability of individual debtors to pay back their loans is among the lowest.

According to the Bank for International Settlements on Sunday, the ratio of Korea's household debt compared to GDP reached 96.9 percent in the third quarter of 2018, ranking seventh in the world among 43 countries that tally such figures.

The pace of growth at 0.9 percentage point is the highest in the world after China's 1.2 percentage points.

The other countries whose household debt level compared to GDP surpassed 100 percent are Switzerland (128.6 percent), Australia (120.5 percent), Denmark (116.7 percent), the Netherlands (102.7 percent), Norway (100.5 percent), and Canada (100.2 percent).

But Korea was the only country where the debt ratio grew in the third quarter last year.