S. Korean bond sales up 5.8 pct in Jan.

SEOUL, Feb. 8 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's bond issuance rose 5.8 percent in January
from a month earlier, boosted by record sales of government bonds, the bourse
operator said Monday.

Bond sales by the central, provincial governments, the central bank and local
firms, climbed to 49.2 trillion won (US$42 billion) last month, from 46.5
trillion won the previous month, the Korea Exchange (KRX) said.
The sales increase came after the government issued a record monthly amount of
9.46 trillion won in treasuries last month, up 74.2 percent from December,
according to the KRX.
As of end-January, outstanding debts in South Korea gained 1.1 percent to come in
at 1,025.8 trillion won, according to the KRX.
Transaction volumes also jumped 11.8 percent month-to-month to 220.47 trillion
won with foreign investors raising their holdings of South Korean bonds.
Overseas investors lapped up a net 6.4 trillion won in local bonds last month,
although Citigroup deferred the inclusion of South Korean government bonds into
the World Government Bond Index, a bond gauge tracking debts of advanced
economies, in January.
Bond yields on the benchmark five-year government bonds fell 0.1 percentage point
to 4.82 percent in January as the finance ministry sent its vice minister for the
first time in a decade to the central bank's rate-setting committee to press its
case to hold the record-low interest rate.
The Bank of Korea held the rate steady at 2 percent last month, holding the
record-low rate for 11th straight month.
pbr@yna.co.kr
(END)

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