Data suggest South Korean households had record-high debts last year at an average of 69-thousand U.S. dollars each.
According to Statistics Korea, that's an increase of 4-point-6 percent from the year before... and it's significantly faster than the rise in incomes, which rose just 6 tenths of a percent.
The household debt-to-GDP ratio is also at an all-time high of 85-point-9 percent,... an on-year increase of 2-point-1 percentage points.
Analysts say the quality of the debt accrued last year was of lower quality,... and they warn that the rate of debt growth might not slow down.