S. Korea's bond issuance falls 13.6 pct in July

SEOUL, Aug. 3 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's bond issuance fell 13.6 percent in July from a month earlier, driven by a decline in sales of bonds by companies and the central bank, the bourse operator said Wednesday.
Bond issuance by the country's government, public institutions and companies came to 43.7 trillion won (US$41.3 billion) last month, compared with 50.5 trillion won the previous month, according to the Korea Exchange (KRX).
The comparable on-year figure was unavailable since the KRX began compiling the data in May this year.
Sales of corporate debts, including those sold by financial firms, fell 28.5 percent to 8.5 trillion won as companies curtailed debt sales after the central bank raised the key rate by 0.25 percentage point to 3.25 percent in June, it said.
Sales of state bonds dropped 16.3 percent to 5.9 trillion won, according to the bourse.
The sale of the so-called monetary stabilization bonds (MSBs) by the Bank of Korea (BOK) dropped 11.5 percent on-month to 16.5 trillion won, the KRX said. The BOK usually floats MSBs to siphon off excess liquidity from the financial system.