SEOUL, KOREA - The total volume of debt overdue by self-employed business operators has reached almost 1 trillion won for the past one year. According to the Financial Supervisory Service and banking sources on June 22, the amount of debt whose payment due dates have been extended by commercial banks from April 2013 to March 2014 was 949.3 billion won in 5,683 cases. The average volume of debt per case was 167 million won.
Since March last year, banks have introduced a scheme to adjust repayment terms and forgive some of the interest payments as a way to relieve the debt burden of small business entrepreneurs.
The total amount of debt 949.3 billion won whose due dates were adjusted represents 0.49 percent of total debt balance outstanding to the self-employed at 193.6 trillion won. A Financial Supervisory Service official said, "As the domestic economy is still not out of the recession, the difficulty for small business operators is continuing. If they go out of business, they might easily fall into poverty. That's why we try to encourage commercial banks and other lenders to adjust their loan terms."
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