Debt held by wage earners in the country expanded significantly in 2020 from a year earlier due to the transitive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Statistics Korea on Tuesday, the average amount of bank and non-bank loans taken out by wage earners was 48-point-six million won per person as of the end of 2020, up ten-point-three percent on-year.

The increase was nearly double the five-point-six-percent rise from 2019.

Credit loans rose to 19-point-two percent, while secure loans increased to 15-point-eight percent. Mortgage loans, meanwhile, increased slightly to one-point-six percent.

The median amount of debt stood at 45 million won, up 16-point-three percent from the previous year.

The statistical agency cited the pandemic and low interest rates to be major factors that led to the surge in debt.