The outstanding lending to all industries came to 1,435.8 trillion won (1.3 trillion U.S. dollars) as of the end of March, up 42.1 trillion won (37.8 billion U.S. dollars) from three months earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
It was higher than an expansion of 27.7 trillion won (24.9 billion U.S. dollars) in the fourth quarter of last year owing to strong demand from the services industry.
Lending to the services industry increased 31.1 trillion won (27.9 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-March quarter, after growing 28.7 trillion won (25.8 billion U.S. dollars) in the previous quarter.
Concerns lingered over the pandemic as the daily number of confirmed COVID-19 cases stayed in triple digits since November last year.
Lending to the manufacturing industry climbed 7.1 trillion won (6.4 billion U.S. dollars) during the first quarter, and the lending to the construction sector gained 2.4 trillion won (2.2 billion U.S. dollars).
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