SEOUL, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- South Korean banks' mortgage loan growth hit a 11-month high in November after the policy rate cut to a record low, joint data from financial watchdog and central bank showed Wednesday.
Home-backed loan, extended by banks to households, increased 4.9 trillion won (4.1 billion U.S. dollars) in November, marking the highest since December last year, according to data from the Bank of Korea (BOK), the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
The fast increase came as the BOK cut its benchmark interest rate from 1.50 percent to a record low of 1.25 percent in October, just three months after lowering it by 25 basis points in July.
Housing price in capital Seoul added 0.50 percent in November from a month earlier, posting the fastest gain since October last year.
For the January-November period, banks' mortgage loan advanced 40.1 trillion won (33.6 billion U.S. dollars). It was up from the expansions of 37.8 trillion won (31.7 billion U.S. dollars) and 37.2 trillion won (31.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the same periods of 2018 and 2017 respectively.
Meanwhile, household loan, offered by all financial institutions including banks, rose 6.5 trillion won (5.4 billion U.S. dollars) in November, down from a growth of 8 trillion won (6.7 billion U.S. dollars) a year earlier.
For the first 11 months of this year, the household loan by all financial institutions climbed 48.3 trillion won (40.4 billion U.S. dollars). It was down from the increases of 68.5 trillion won (57.4 billion U.S. dollars) and 84.5 trillion won (70.8 billion U.S. dollars) in the same periods of 2018 and 2017 each.
