Bond sales in South Korea grew from a month earlier in April on a rise in government bond issues, data showed Friday.

The value of bonds sold last month came to 83.4 trillion won (US$60.9 billion), up 12.1 trillion won, or 17 percent, from 71.3 trillion won sold the previous month, according to the data from the Korea Financial Investment Association.

The value of outstanding bonds had stood at 2,780.3 trillion won as of end-April, up 20.6 trillion won from a month earlier.

Corporate bond issuance slipped 300 billion won to 8.8 trillion won over the cited period, while government bond issuance gained nearly 9 percent on-month to over 29 trillion won.

Sales of environment, social and governance bonds, a type of sustainability debt offering aimed at financing corporate activities in environmentally friendly and sustainable projects, came to 7.4 trillion won, up 800 billion won from a month earlier.

Demand forecasting for corporate bonds came to 3.1 trillion won in April, down 170 billion won from the same
month last year.

Foreign investors net purchased 5.6 trillion won worth of local bonds in April, up a net purchase of 3.3 trillion won the previous month. Retail investors also remained net buyers, purchasing 4.5 trillion won, up from 3.57 trillion won in March.

Source: Yonhap News Agency