SEOUL, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's corporate bond sale posted double-digit growth in January as industrial companies rushed to borrow money in the first month of the year, financial watchdog data showed Tuesday.
The issuance of corporate bonds amounted to 13.56 trillion won (12.2 billion U.S. dollars) in January, up 28.1 percent from the previous month, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.
Bonds, sold by industrial companies, reached 4.52 trillion won (4.1 billion U.S. dollars) in January, more than tripling compared to the prior month.
Companies rushed to borrow money amid the record-low policy rate that has been left unchanged at 0.50 percent since May last year.
The bond issuance by financial firms added 0.2 percent to 8.43 trillion won (7.6 billion U.S. dollars) last month, but the asset-backed securities (ABS) sale tumbled 45.7 percent.
The outstanding corporate bonds came in at 578.83 trillion won (521.6 billion U.S. dollars) as of the end of January, up 0.3 percent from a month earlier.
The equity financing, which includes the initial public offering (IPO) and rights issuance, came to 1.91 trillion won (1.7 billion U.S. dollars) in January, down 40.8 percent from the prior month. Enditem