Chungnam, Private Loan Balance Down 9.1% Year-on-Year

[Asia Economy (Hongseong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The loan balance in the lending industry within Chungnam Province has decreased by 9.1% compared to the previous year.

Chungnam Province announced the results of the '2021 First Half Lending Industry Survey' on the 29th. The survey was conducted on 180 registered lending and loan brokerage businesses in Chungnam as of June 30.

The survey confirmed that as of June, 2,736 residents were using lending services, a decrease of 303 people (9.9%) from 3,039 at the end of last year.

The loan balance showed an increasing trend over the past three years, from 23.2 billion KRW in 2018 to 24.965 billion KRW in 2019, and 30.528 billion KRW last year, but in the first half of this year, it decreased by 2.791 billion KRW to 27.737 billion KRW compared to the end of last year.

The loan amount in the first half of this year is divided into unsecured loans of 12.718 billion KRW and secured loans of 14.992 billion KRW. Among these, unsecured loans decreased by 995 million KRW (9.1%) from 13.713 billion KRW at the end of last year, and secured loans decreased by 1.823 billion KRW (10.8%) from 16.815 billion KRW.

Song Mu-kyung, Director of the Economic Policy Division of the province, explained, “The decrease in loan balances is interpreted as a phenomenon caused by the reduction of interest burden on lending users due to the statutory maximum interest rate cut in July this year, while cases of business reduction or suspension by lenders have increased.” He added, “The province will strengthen guidance and inspections related to lending, such as illegal debt collection, and actively respond to rights violations related to lending by suspending the use of phone numbers used in illegal lending advertisements.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.