Total outstanding local currency government and corporate bond issues are available at the KoreaBondWeb website, which is linked below.

The Bank of Korea’s (BOK) Economic Statistics System provides monthly and annual data on issued and outstanding bonds, including treasury, corporate, and National Housing bonds, among others.

The Korea Development Bank (KDB) publishes a quarterly report on the Korean bond market with discussion on bond issuance and a bond market outlook.

Trading volumes (monthly and annual) of government and corporate bonds transacted at the Korea Exchange (KRX) can be found by following the KRX link provided below.

The number of listed issues and trading volumes of public and corporate bonds can be downloaded from the Bank of Korea’s (BOK) Economic Statistics System, which is linked below. The ownership structure of government bonds by investor group is also included.

The Korea Financial Investment Association (KOFIA) publishes an annual report that gives historical turnover data for bonds traded in the over-the-counter (OTC) and exchange markets.

Yields on local currency benchmark treasury bonds and non-guaranteed corporate bonds are available at KoreaBondWeb, which is linked below. As credit spreads vary depending upon time to maturity, yields are classified by tenor.

Daily prices of swaps are available at the Korea Development Bank (KDB) website, which is linked below.

Republic of Korea uses several reference rates that together can indicate trends in official monetary policy:

Policy Rate

In March 2008, the Bank of Korea (BOK) decided to adopt a new benchmark interest rate replacing the target overnight (uncollaterized) call rate used for interbank borrowings with the 7-day repurchase agreement (RP) rate termed ‘Bank of Korea Base Rate’ (the Base Rate). The Base Rate will serve as the rate for the 7-day RP and the minimum bid rate for 7-day reverse repos in open market operations.

Further details on the implementation of Korea’s new monetary policy stance are explained on the BOK link below.

Short-term Interest Rate

The yield on 3-month certificates of deposit (CDs) is one of the most widely quoted short-term interest rates used by banks to charge corporate customers. The Korea Interbank Offered Rate (KORIBOR), launched in July 2004, is fixed by taking the average of the middle 8 of 14 quotes from contributing banks. KORIBOR is published daily for maturities ranging from one week to 12-months by the Korea Federation of Banks (KFB).

Medium and Long-term Interest Rates

One-year Monetary Stabilization Bonds (MSBs) and 3-year and 5-year treasury bond yields are benchmarks for medium- and long-term interest rates, respectively. The yields on MSBs and treasury bonds provide signals of the market’s liquidity and direction of monetary policy.