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Biz News Korea(Eng)
Debt surge among self-employed poses as another ticking bomb for Korean economy
- Collected
- 2017.03.25
- Distributed
- 2017.03.28
- Source
- Go Direct
이미지 확대That’s an increase of 57.7 trillion won, or 13.7 percent, from a year ago, according to Bank of Korea data released on Friday.
The total debt self-employed individuals were on the hook for at the end of 2016 is estimated to reach 480.2 trillion won. Of these, 308.7 trillion won were classified as loans for individual business operators (equivalent to loans for small businesses) and the remaining as household debt.
By business type, loans extended to real-estate rental business came on top with nearly 40 percent, followed by wholesale and retail business with 15.7 percent and restaurant and lodging business with 9.8 percent.
Self-employed workers are burdened in the face of mounting debt and growing expenses, while their income remains unstable.
As of the end of last March, the outstanding debt of self-employed households averaged 113 million won, about 1.5 times higher than that of salaried households.
In particular, the number of self-employed households in the lowest two quartiles, or marginal households, came to 696,000 households, or 23.8 percent of the total as of the end of last March. Loans extended to these households are estimated to be 42.8 trillion won, or 9.9 percent of total debt owed by self-employed individuals. Most of these are small mom and pop shops that hire no employees.
By Boo Jang-won
[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]