SEOUL, March 29 (Xinhua) -- South Korean banks' loan delinquency ratio rose in the first month of this year due to more new delinquent loans than bad loan settlements, financial watchdog data showed Friday.

Bank loans overdue at least one month stood at 0.45 percent of the total at the end of January, up 0.07 percentage points from a month earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

New delinquent loans amounted to 2.9 trillion won (2.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the month, higher than the settlement of non-performing loans worth 1.3 trillion won (963.7 million dollars).

The delinquency ratio has roughly been on the rise after hitting a bottom at 0.20 percent in June 2022 on the back of the high policy rate.

The central bank had left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.50 percent since January last year, after hiking it by 3.0 percentage points for the past one and a half years.

Excluding the settled bad loan, the delinquency ratio for new bank loans came in at 0.13 percent in January, up 0.03 percentage points compared to the previous month.

The delinquency ratio for bank corporate loans increased 0.09 percentage points from a month earlier to 0.50 percent at the end of January, while the ratio for household loans added 0.03 percentage points to 0.38 percent. Enditem

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