South Korea’s public sector debt has neared almost 65 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).
 
The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said Thursday that debt owed by the government and non-financial state-owned enterprises at the end of last year amounted to 957-point-three billion won, or roughly 816 billion U.S. dollars.
 
Of the debt totaling 64-point-five percent of the nation’s GDP, the government owes 620-point-six trillion won.
 
Non-financial publicly owned corporations were on the hook for 408-point-five trillion won, but 71-point-seven trillion in internal transactions with government agencies was deducted from the total public sector debt.
 
In terms of amount, the public debt rose by 58-point-six trillion won from 2013.
 
Its growth as a percentage to GDP, however, slowed to one-point-six percentage points from three-point-three percentage points in 2013.