South Korean companies' bond issuance slumped 29.7 percent in July from a month earlier due mainly to a fall in debt sales by both financial and non-financial firms, the securities depository agency said Monday.

The combined corporate bond issuance by financial and non-financial firms reached 8.7 trillion won (US$8.2 billion) last month, compared with 12.4 trillion won in June, according to the Korea Securities Depository (KSD).

Non-financial firms' bond issuance tumbled 29.7 percent on-month to 4.1 trillion won, the KSD said.

Financial companies' debt sales plunged 29.6 percent from the previous month to 4.6 trillion won, according to the depository agency.

In July, local companies repaid a combined 7.6 trillion won of maturing bonds, which resulted in a net issuance of 1.1 trillion won, the agency said.

Source: Yonhap News (August 8, 2011)