SEOUL, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's industrial lending growth hit the highest in 10 years in the third quarter amid the near-record-low borrowing costs, central bank data showed Thursday.
Loans to companies, public institutions and the government by deposit takers, including banks, savings banks, credit unions and community credit cooperatives, amounted to 1,107 trillion won (1 trillion U.S. dollars) as of the end of September, up 24.3 trillion won (21.7 billion U.S. dollars) from three months earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
It was the biggest increase since the third quarter of 2008, almost doubling the expansion of 12.9 trillion won (11.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the second quarter of this year.
The fast growth came as the BOK refrained from altering the policy rate for the past 12 months. The central bank raised its target rate to the current 1.50 percent in November last year from an all-time low of 1.25 percent.
The prolonged low rate trend encouraged households to purchase new home with borrowed money.
Lending to the services industry expanded 18 trillion won (16 billion U.S. dollars) in the July-September quarter, the fastest increase since the relevant data began to be compiled in 2008.
Among the total, almost half of the increase went to real estate developers, of which lending grew 8.9 trillion won (7.9 billion U.S. dollars) in the September quarter.
Lending to the manufacturing sector rose 4.7 trillion won (4.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the third quarter.
