SEOUL, April 29 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's issuance of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) fell in double digits in the first quarter due to lower demand for government-backed mortgage loans, financial watchdog data showed Monday.

The sale of the MBS, issued by the state-run Korea Housing Finance Corp. to securitize mortgage loans, amounted to 5.9 trillion won (4.3 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-March quarter, down 16.3 percent compared with the same quarter of last year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

The double-digit decrease came from weaker demand for government-backed mortgage loans, affected by the faltering housing market and the high interest rates.

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

The issuance of asset-backed securities (ABS), including the MBS, stood at 14.9 trillion won (10.8 billion dollars) in the first quarter, up 38.1 percent from a year earlier.

The ABS issuance by financial companies almost tripled to 6.9 trillion won (5 billion dollars), while the ABS sale by industrial firms advanced in double digits to 2.1 trillion won (1.5 billion dollars).

The outstanding ABS issuance came to 258.4 trillion won (187.7 billion dollars) at the end of March, up 12.0 percent from a year earlier. Enditem

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