S. Korea's corporate bond sale logs double-digit growth in January

South Korea's corporate bond sale logged a double-digit growth last month on the back of ample liquidity at the beginning of the year, financial watchdog data showed Monday.

The issuance of corporate bonds amounted to 16.89 trillion won (12.8 billion U.S. dollars) in January, up 52.7 percent from the previous month, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

Despite higher interest rates, the financing conditions improved due to the beginning-of-year liquidity abundance.

The country's central bank raised its policy rate since August 2021 from a record low of 0.50 percent to 3.50 percent.

Bonds, sold by industrial companies, came to 6.13 trillion won (4.7 billion dollars) in January, soaring nearly six times compared to 1.07 trillion won (813.4 million dollars) tallied a month earlier.

Financial companies-issued bonds advanced 18.6 percent to 10.56 trillion won (8 billion dollars), while the issuance of asset-backed securities (ABS) tumbled 81.4 percent to 203 billion won (154.3 million dollars).

Equity financing, including the initial public offering (IPO) and rights issuance, stood at 1.49 trillion won (1.1 billion dollars) in January, more than doubling compared to 585.7 billion won (445.3 million dollars) in the prior month.