A man walks past a loan notice in Seoul, Oct. 29. Yonhap

Debt held by the self-employed rose 1.1 percent to reach a fresh high in 2022, data showed Thursday.

Loans extended by banks and nonbanking institutions to a self-employed person amounted to 179 million won ($137,228) as of end-2022, compared with 177 million won a year ago, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

The amount of loans by such individuals has been on a constant increase from 155.89 million won in 2018 to 168.3 million won in 2020 and 177.17 million won in 2021.

But the growth rate slowed from the previous year’s 5.4 percent as the government has tightened related rules to curb rising household debt, an agency official said.

Last year’s growth came as loans for business purposes advanced 6.2 percent to 96.24 million won per person, while their household loans fell 4.2 percent on-year to 82.94 million won.

Loans from nonbanking institutions climbed 5.3 percent, but those from banks shed 1.6 percent on-year last year, the data showed.

The delinquency rate for self-employed people rose to 0.37 percent in 2022 from the previous year’s 0.32 percent. (Yonhap)