SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Corporate bond sales in South Korea posted a double-digit growth as the near-record-low policy rate kept borrowing costs low, financial watchdog data showed Wednesday.
Corporate bond sales totaled 14.1 trillion won (12.7 billion U.S. dollars) in July, up 16.5 percent from a month earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
The fast increase came as the country's central bank refrained from altering its target rate after raising it in November last year to the current 1.5 percent from an all-time low of 1.25 percent.
Bonds, sold by financial companies, expanded by a double digit as banks' bond issuance surged 51.2 percent in a bid to secure funds on expectations for the central bank's rate hike in the foreseeable future.
Asset-backed securities (ABS) issuance declined 23.8 percent. Bond sales by industrial companies inched down 1.1 percent in the cited period.
Initial public offering (IPO) reached this year's monthly high of 537.2 billion won (483.7 million U.S. dollars) in July as nine startup companies were listed on the tech-savvy KOSDAQ market.
Issuance of rights offering in the stock market advanced 25.4 percent over the month to 300.9 billion won (270.9 million U.S. dollars) in July.
