SeoulMarkets · tag
bank of korea
7 stories tagged “bank of korea”, each from official Korean data with its source and timestamp.
Korea's credit stress is in companies, not households
Bank loan delinquency, Dec 2023 to Jul 2026: corporate loans went 0.4% to 0.8%, a doubling. Household loans went 0.3% to 0.4%. The series everyone writes about is the one that moved least.
Korea's household debt quadrupled in 24 years. Who holds it barely changed.
Household credit went from ₩464.7t in 2002 to ₩2019.8t in 2026Q2 — 4.35 times. Commercial banks held 47.8% then and 50.6% now. The real swing was elsewhere.
Korean men now carry 14% more mortgage debt than women — in 2013 the gap was 1%
Bank of Korea borrower-level data: mortgage balance per borrower was ₩91.6m for men and ₩90.4m for women in 2013. By 2026Q2 it is ₩170.2m against ₩149.3m — a gap that widened in 47 of 53 quarters.
Korea's bond curve, one day: 3.47% at a year, 4.64% at thirty — then it dips
On 2026-09-04, Bank of Korea's own reference yields ran from 3.47% at one year to a peak of 4.64% at thirty years, then fell back to 4.54% at fifty. The long end of Korea's curve is not a straight climb.
The won, not the goods, drove much of Korea's imported inflation
Over the year to July 2026 Korea's import prices rose 18.4% in won but only 11.1% in contract currency. The 7-point gap is the exchange rate, not dearer goods. A March commodity spike lifted all gauges, then partly eased. Not advice.
Korea is quietly moving onto floating rates — and companies are moving fastest
Over the year to June 2026 the fixed-rate share of won bank loans fell for every borrower: companies 39% to 31%, households 47% to 44%, mortgages 66% to 63%. More of the loan book now reprices when rates move. Not advice.
Korea's producer prices rose 7.7% — its chip prices tripled
The headline producer price index barely moved. Underneath, chip prices rose 315% and memory 291% in a year while forest and vegetable prices fell 20-35%. The 7.7% average hides a violent split. Not advice.