Short-term deposits at South Korean banks jumped by nearly seventeen percent last year,... mainly due to increased short-term savings by big firms.
According to the Bank of Korea's report on Monday,... the amount of fixed deposits with a maturity of less than one year stood at two-hundred and twelve billion U.S. dollars in 2018,... up around seventeen percent from the previous year.
This is the fastest on-year increase in short-term deposits in eight years.
Analysis of the data suggests that big companies are putting their idle money into short-term time deposits to protect against possible cash crunches,... instead of making long-term investments.