South Korea - Outstanding Public Debt





South Korea: Outstanding Public Debt

Mnemonic GDBT.IKOR
Unit Mil. USD, NSA
Adjustments Not Seasonally Adjusted
Quarterly 2.2 %
Data 2023 Q4 663,631
2023 Q3 649,322

Series Information

Source The Bank of Korea
Release External Asset and Debts
Frequency Quarterly
Start Date 12/31/1994
End Date 12/31/2023

South Korea: Government

Reference Last Previous Units Frequency
Outstanding Public Debt 2023 Q4 663,631 649,322 Mil. USD, NSA Quarterly
Government Budget Balance Nov 2023 -19,455 -10,444 Bil. KRW YTD, NSA Monthly
Government Expenditures Nov 2023 520,917 478,607 Bil. KRW, NSA Monthly
Government Revenues Nov 2023 501,462 468,163 Bil. KRW YTD, NSA Monthly

Release Information

The external debt is compiled by the Bank of Korea. The data are published quarterly on the Bank of Korea website and are broken down into sectors:

  1. Gross External Debt- Total
  2. General government
  3. Central Bank
  4. Deposit-taking corporations, except
  5. Other Sectors

The external debt, at any given time, is the outstanding amount of those actual current, and not contingent, liabilities that require payments of principal and/or interest by the debtor at some point in the future and that are owed to nonresidents by residents of Korea. A resident is an individual or a legal entity whose main economic interest or activity is located within the territory of the country. Specifically, the criteria for defining residents and nonresidents are based on the definitions contained in the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, which defines a resident as (i) any private person who has a domicile or residence in the Republic of Korea, (ii) any organization, agency or other equivalent entity located in the Republic of Korea including a branch office or other office of a nonresident, or (iii) any foreigner who has stayed in the Republic of Korea for more than six months. A nonresident is defined as (i) any private person or any juristic person other than a resident, (ii) any organization, agency or other equivalent entity located in a foreign country including a foreign branch office or other office of a resident, or (iii) any national of the Republic of Korea who has stayed abroad for more than two years.

Criteria used for determining whether a liability is a debt instrument or not:

  • The external debt, at any given time, is the outstanding amount of those actual current, and not contingent, liabilities that require payments of principal and/or interest by the debtor at some point in the future.
  • External debt liabilities payable in goods and/or services are included in the external debt position.

Classification

  • External debt data are classified:
    • Into four sectors (general government, monetary authorities, banks, and other sectors). 
    • Major reclassifications are clearly identified (for example, reclassifications of external debt liabilities by institutional sector due to changes in the debtor resulting from debt rescheduling/refinancing are identified) but there are no comments concerning those through footnotes.
  • Extent to which the classification of external debt data into four sectors (general government, monetary authorities, banks, and other sectors) follows the guidelines set out in the BPM5 and the Guide: The external debt is compiled essentially following international standards contained in the External Debt Statistics: Guide for Compilers and Users and the IMF's BPM5.
    • external debt liabilities of the monetary authority are separately identified from the liabilities of the general government, and
    • External debt liabilities of households and small private enterprises are included under "other sectors." 
  • External debt liabilities are attributed to the sector of the immediate borrower.
  • External debt liabilities are classified under the sector category of the debtor and not of any guarantor.
  • The short-term/long-term classification on an original maturity basis.
  • Intercompany lending between entities in a direct investment relationship is separately identified in the total external debt position.

Data is not revised as it is measured per unit of time.