Corporate loan growth in South Korea picked up in the second quarter from three months earlier, central bank data showed Thursday, mainly due to a gain in loans for the service sector.

The outstanding loans extended to local companies came to 1,842.8 trillion won (US$1.379 trillion) as of end-June, up 24.3 trillion won from three months earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The second-quarter increase is larger than the previous quarter’s 20.8 trillion-won increase.

By sector, loans to manufacturing firms rose 5.6 trillion won on-quarter to 447.3 trillion won as of the end of June, slowing from the previous quarter’s 11 trillion-won gain.

Total loans in the service sector expanded 13.4 trillion won to 1,188.4 trillion won, compared with a growth of 8.4 trillion won in the first quarter.

Source: Yonhap News Agency