National Debt in 2010 Gains More than 30 tln won

S Korea’s national debt grew more than 30 trillion won last year from a year earlier as the government had to expand borrowing to fill its budget shortfalls, Yonhap news reported.

The debt including central and local government borrowing amounted 392.8 trillion won last year from 349 trillion won 2009, the finance ministry announced Tuesday.

Central government debt grew 27.7 trillion won to 373.8 trillion won and local government debt reached about 19 trillion won. Local figure will be fixed at the end of June.

The increase was attributed to increased issuance of government bonds aimed at filling the gap in government budget spending, the news added.

Despite the increased borrowing, the ratio of national debt to gross domestic product inched down 0.3 percentage point to 33.3 percent, the report showed.
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(아주경제 송지영 기자)

Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com