Last Year Bond Issuance 876 Trillion... 13% Increase Compared to Previous Year

As the global monetary tightening stance continued, the issuance of government bonds, Monetary Stabilization Bonds, and financial bonds increased, resulting in a rise in bond issuance volume last year.

According to the "Over-the-Counter Bond Market Trends of Last Year" announced by the Korea Financial Investment Association on the 12th, the total bond issuance volume last year was 876.7 trillion won, an increase of 103.2 trillion won (13.3%) compared to the previous year. Net issuance increased by 123.3 trillion won, bringing the outstanding balance to 2,716.5 trillion won.

Government bonds were issued at 223.9 trillion won, up 24.5 trillion won (12.3%) from the previous year. Monetary Stabilization Bonds rose by 24.9 trillion won (23.8%) to 129.6 trillion won. Additionally, with increased bond issuance by banks and credit finance companies, financial bonds were issued at 303.6 trillion won, up 32.4 trillion won (11.9%) compared to the previous year.

As corporate bond investment demand recovered, credit spreads narrowed. However, differences appeared between high-grade and non-investment-grade bonds. Corporate bonds were issued at 89.4 trillion won, an increase of 12.6 trillion won (16.4%) compared to the previous year.

Expectations for the end of the interest rate hike cycle brought warmth to the corporate bond issuance market. As a result, the demand forecast amount increased by 4.8 trillion won compared to the previous year, reaching 33.2 trillion won. The participation rate recorded 498.9%, up 268.7 percentage points from the previous year.

With the recovery of corporate bond investment demand, unsold bonds decreased. Compared to the confirmed issuance amount of 51.8 trillion won (451 cases) after the overall demand forecast, 1.5 trillion won (33 cases) remained unsold, resulting in an unsold rate of 2.9%.

Over-the-counter bond trading volume also increased. Due to the rising interest rate trend, it rose by 20.7 trillion won (0.5%) compared to the previous year to 4,485.2 trillion won, with an average daily trading volume increasing by 160 billion won to 18.2 trillion won.

Along with this, individual investors continued to prefer stable high-interest bonds amid the rising interest rate trend. They net purchased 37.6 trillion won, an increase of 16.95 trillion won compared to the previous year, in corporate bonds, other financial bonds (credit finance bonds), government bonds, and bank bonds. Foreign investors net purchased a total of 91.8 trillion won last year, including 63.7 trillion won in government bonds and 21.7 trillion won in Monetary Stabilization Bonds, driven by higher interest rates relative to national credit ratings and arbitrage incentives. This is an increase of 20.4 trillion won compared to the previous year.

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