South Korea’s Total Liabilities Close to 5,500 Trillion Won

It has been found that the total debts of the South Korean government, the public and corporate sectors of the country and South Korean households are estimated to reach no less than 5,500 trillion won or so.

The Bank of Korea and the Ministry of Strategy & Finance announced on April 5 that the central and local governments of South Korea and its public sector including state-run non-banking companies recorded total liabilities of 957.3 trillion won as of the end of 2014. The amount increases to 1,247 trillion won when the liabilities of state-run banking companies, estimated to have totaled 289.7 trillion won in 2012, are included in the calculation.

Last year, the country’s public pension liabilities totaled 659.9 trillion won, divided into 531.8 trillion won for the public employee pension and 128.1 trillion won for the military pension. With this amount added, the total increases to 1,906.9 trillion won. However, it is expected to be around 2,000 trillion won now in view of the time lag.

As of the end of last year, the household liabilities reached 1,207 trillion won or so, breaking the 1,200 trillion won mark for the first time ever. Besides, South Korean enterprises’ total debts hit 2,347 trillion won at the end of the first quarter of 2015. This amount is equivalent to 1.4 times the country’s GDP for 2015. The aggregate of all the amounts above is 5,460.9 trillion won, 3.2 times South Korea’s GDP for 2015