SEOUL, Corporate direct financing in South Korea jumped more than 20 percent from a year earlier in 2023, led by a sharp increase in financial bond sales, data showed Wednesday.

Local companies raised a combined 245.66 trillion won (US$184.3 billion) by selling stocks and bonds last year, up 41 trillion won or 20.1 percent from 2022, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service.

Direct financing refers to raising funds directly from the stock and bond markets without borrowing from banks and other financial institutions.

The local firms raised some 10.8 trillion won by selling stocks in 2023, down 50.5 percent from the previous year, while issuing 234.8 trillion won worth of bonds, up 28.6 percent over the cited period.

As of end-December, the value of outstanding corporate bonds came to 641.3 trillion won, up 2.9 percent from a year earlier.

In December, corporate direct financing amounted to 15.69 trillion won, down 40.6 percent from the previous month.

Stock sales plummeted 79 percen
t on-month to 567 billion won, with bond issuance falling 35.4 percent to 15.04 trillion won.

Source: Yonhap News Agency