S.Korean households' surplus fund grows in Q1

SEOUL, July 6 (Xinhua) -- South Korean households' surplus fund holdings grew in the first quarter owing to lower borrowing, caused by higher interest rates, central bank data showed Wednesday.

Surplus fund, or the value of financial assets minus financial liabilities that were held by households and non-profit organizations, came to 60.4 trillion won (46.3 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-March quarter, up from 51.1 trillion won for the same quarter of last year, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

Financial liabilities tumbled to 22.7 trillion won in the first quarter from 53 trillion won a year earlier.

Households refrained from borrowing money as borrowing costs were on the rise amid the BOK's policy rate hikes to rein in high inflation.

Financial assets, such as deposits and securities, totaled 83.2 trillion won in the first quarter, down from 104 trillion won a year earlier.

The holdings of equity securities and investment funds dropped from 42.3 trillion won to 9.5 trillion won in the cited period, while the deposits holdings jumped from 15 trillion won to 42.3 trillion won. (1 U.S. dollar equals 1,304.62 won)