Recent data shows that South Korean households have debts amounting to one-point-five times more than their incomes, marking a continual rise in the nation's debt-to-income ratio.

According to the data by Statistics Korea, South Korean households' net disposable income stood at over 837-point-17 trillion won last year, while the year-end household credit balance was one-point-two quadrillion won.

Net disposable income includes money that can be freely used excluding taxes while household credit refers to money added up from loans and credit card payments.

Household debt levels reached 144-point-two percent of household income last year. This means that even if households use all their annual disposable income to pay off debts, 44 percent of their debt will remain. This debt-to-income ratio has steadily risen from just over a hundred percent in 2004 to 136-point-four percent in 2014.

The surge in household debt is attributed to a spike in home mortgage loans after the central bank lowered the key interest rate to a record-low of one-point-five percent last June.

With debt growing faster than income, concerns are rising regarding whether households can pay back their loans as well as their overall financial soundness.