Debt incurred by households and self-employed businesses in South Korea is estimated to surpass two-thousand trillion won in the third quarter of last year, the first time in the nation's history.
 
According to data by the Bank of Korea on Sunday, outstanding debt incurred by households and self-employed businesses came to two-thousand-eleven-point-four trillion won at the end of September last year, up about 29 trillion won from three months earlier.
 
Loans took out by self-employed businesses accounted for 56-point-six percent of the 29 trillion won on-quarter increase.
 
Outstanding household debts marked one-thousand-481 trillion won in the third quarter of last year, up 13-point-six trillion won from the previous quarter.
 
Debt incurred by self-employed businesses reached 670 trillion won at the end of last September, up 16-point-three trillion won from three months ago.
 
Cho Young-moo, a researcher at LG Economic Research Institute, said self-employed business owners appear to have taken out more loans as business conditions worsened due to weak consumption.