![Prime Minister Jeong Sye-gyun attends the New Year's first Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters (Company) meeting at the government building in Seoul on the morning of the 2nd, and is silent with Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki and Yoo Eun-hye. [사진 출처 = 연합뉴스]](https://i0.wp.com/file.mk.co.kr/meet/neds/2021/01/image_readtop_2021_49013_16106890834508668.jpg?w=560&ssl=1)
Prime Minister Jeong Sye-gyun attends the New Year’s first Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters (Company) meeting at the government building in Seoul on the morning of the 2nd, and is silent with Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki and Yoo Eun-hye. [사진 출처 = 연합뉴스]The debt of households, companies, and government, which are considered to be the main players of the Korean economy, is facing an era of 1,000 trillion won.
Looking at the financial market trends released by the Bank of Korea on the 15th, the bank’s household loan balance as of the end of December of last year was 98.8 trillion won, an increase of 10 trillion won a year. Compared to the annual increase of 60 trillion won in the previous two years, the increase is very high. Home mortgage loans increased by 68.3 trillion won and other loans increased by 32.4 trillion won. It is a popular opinion that the rise in apartment prices in urban areas such as Seoul and surpassing 3000 points of KOSPI was possible through’debt investments’.
As for corporate debt, the balance of Hyundai loans at the end of December last year was 96.4 trillion won, an increase of 107.4 trillion won from a year ago. The annual increase in 2018 and 2019 was around 40 trillion won. SME loans increased by 87 trillion won. More than half of SME loans are known to be private business loans. Large corporate loans increased by 1.95 trillion won.
The government debt situation is not very different. The government’s debt increased to 84.89 trillion won as additional budgets were formulated four times last year. The size of the managed fiscal deficit amounted to 111.6 trillion won. Among these, the government organized 558 trillion won in this year’s budget, an increase of 8.9% (45 trillion won) from the previous year. In order to finance this, the government has to pay 93.2 trillion won in debt. As a result, national debt is highly likely to increase to 956 trillion won at the end of the year.
Dr. Song Joon of the LG Economic Research Institute said in an interview with a news agency, “Household debt is at a very high level compared to other countries, so it can be a problem when interest rates rise, and I am concerned that it can fix long-term low growth by restraining consumption.” (National debt) is never high, but considering the rate of low fertility and aging, it is necessary to establish fiscal discipline to prepare for the future or to manage the national credit rating as the rate of increase in the debt ratio can be accelerated due to an increase in fiscal requirements. Diagnosed.
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