Default rate on commercial notes falls slightly in February

The nation`s default rate on commercial notes dropped marginally in February to 0.31 percent from 0.32 percent the previous month, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said Friday. BOK officials attributed the fall to a decline in corporate bankruptcy cases, especially among Daewoo Group affiliates.

The number of corporate insolvency cases slipped to 497 in February from January`s 532. The daily average based on the number of business days also fell from 23.1 in January to 20.7 in February. A total of 202 Seoul firms went bankrupt last month, one less than in January, while corporate bankruptcy cases numbered 295 in provincial areas, down 34 from the previous month.

Meanwhile, a total of 3,294 firms were newly set up in eight major cities across the country in February, up 532 from a month earlier. BOK said it was the largest increase since last August. There were 11.9 times as many corporate bankruptcies as startups in January and the figure increased to 14.1 in February.

Yonhap