Statistics Korea to enhance household debt data

[Photo by Yonhap]

Statistics Korea is expected to release more detailed data on household debt later in 2024, according to sources familiar with the matter. The South Korean statistics agency’s move comes amid growing criticism over the lack of information regarding loans to self-employed businesses.

“Statistics Korea aims to integrate data on self-employed borrowers from the credit rating agency Korea Credit Bureau to provide more detailed statistics,” the sources said. “Collaborative efforts involving the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Financial Services Commission (FSC), and Statistics Korea are underway to schedule inter-ministerial discussions for the rollout of the upgraded data of household debt.”

Household debt statistics are largely provided by two statistical systems, including the database managed by the Bank of Korea, and household financial data released by Statistics Korea and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

But these metrics lack the capacity to represent real data because of their limited sample sizes and infrequent updates, which take place one to four times a year. For example, the central bank’s database has a sample size of 1.1 million individuals, which accounts for only 2.4 percent of the country’s credit-active population.

There is also a lack of data on loans outstanding to self-employed borrowers, and the national statistics system, these loans are not treated as part of the household debt as the system classifies the purpose of the borrowing as “business.” But self-employed borrowers have struggled with historic high interest rates as they are obligated to repay their loans in the same way as household loan borrowers.

An analysis by the Maeil Business Newspaper, which tracked the data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), found that the debt incurred by self-employed businesses is estimated at 355 trillion won ($266.5 billion). That means that 18.9 percent of the total household debt, which stood at 1876 trillion won as of the third quarter of 2023, remains a blind spot in debt statistics.