S.Korea's household loans grow faster on higher housing transactions

South Korea's household loans grew at a faster pace in April as housing transactions rose during the spring house-moving season, central bank data showed Tuesday.

Household loans extended by deposit-taking institutions, including banks and non-bank lenders, reached 695.5 trillion won ( 684.5 billion U.S. dollars) as of the end of April, up 5 trillion won from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The May growth was faster than an expansion of 2.4 trillion in April as demand for home-backed loans became stronger during the spring house-moving season.

Housing transactions increased to 92,691 units in April from 89, 394 a month earlier, according to data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT).

Mortgage loan growth accelerated to 3.4 trillion won in April from 2.3 trillion won in March, with other credit loan growing faster to 1.5 trillion won in April from 0.1 trillion won a month earlier.

Loans owed by households to banks increased 2.8 trillion won from a month earlier to 484.1 trillion won in April.

Loans extended by non-bank lenders, including mutual savings banks, credit unions, mutual finance companies and community credit cooperatives, expanded 2.2 trillion won to 211.5 trillion won in the cited period.