SEOUL, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- South Korean banks' loan delinquency ratio fell in three months owing to more bad loan settlement than new delinquent loan at the end of the year, financial watchdog data showed Monday.

Bank loan, overdue at least one month, was 0.44 percent of the total at the end of December, down 0.08 percentage points from a month earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

The bad loan ratio shifted downward after going up 0.03 percentage points in October and 0.04 percentage points in November.

New delinquent loan came to 2.5 trillion won (1.7 billion U.S. dollars) in the cited month, lower than the settlement of non-performing loans worth 4.3 trillion won (3 billion dollars).

The delinquency ratio has roughly been on the rise after hitting bottom at 0.20 percent in June 2022 amid rising uncertainty over the Asian economy.

The central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points in October and November last year each to 3.00 percent.

Excluding the settled bad loan, the delinquency ratio for fresh bank loan stood at 0.10 percent in December, down 0.02 percentage points compared to the previous month.

The delinquency ratio for bank corporate loan declined 0.10 percentage points from a month earlier to 0.50 percent at the end of December, while the ratio for household loan shrank 0.03 percentage points to 0.38 percent. Enditem

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