Bank household loan rates rose to an annual 4.64 percent last month, up 0.14 percentage points from the previous month. Mortgage loan rates also climbed 0.12 points to 4.48 percent. Overall bank lending rates edged lower as corporate loan rates fell.

According to the Bank of Korea's "July 2026 Weighted Average Interest Rates of Financial Institutions" released on Tuesday, the lending rate on newly issued loans by deposit-taking banks was 4.27 percent last month, down 0.04 points from the previous month. The savings deposit rate was 3.21 percent, up 0.13 points.

By sector, the household loan rate rose 0.14 points to 4.64 percent from 4.50 percent a month earlier. The mortgage loan rate also increased 0.12 points over the same period, to 4.48 percent from 4.36 percent.

The corporate loan rate, however, fell 0.07 points to 4.20 percent from 4.27 percent. Loans to large companies rose 0.01 points to 4.18 percent, but loans to small and medium-sized firms fell 0.16 points to 4.22 percent from 4.38 percent. As a result, the overall lending rate came in at 4.27 percent, down 0.04 points from the previous month despite the rise in household loan rates.

Deposit rates continued to rise. The savings deposit rate on newly issued deposits increased 0.13 points from the previous month to 3.21 percent. The rate on pure savings deposits rose 0.14 points to 3.16 percent, and market-type financial products gained 0.12 points to 3.48 percent.

The gap between the lending rate and the savings deposit rate on a newly issued basis narrowed to 1.06 percentage points from 1.23 points the previous month, a decrease of 0.17 points. At end-July, the total deposit rate on an outstanding-balance basis rose 0.08 points from end-June to 2.15 percent, and the total lending rate increased 0.03 points to 4.37 percent. The loan-deposit rate gap on an outstanding-balance basis narrowed 0.05 points to 2.22 points.

Among non-bank financial institutions, savings banks saw a notable rise in rates. The one-year time deposit rate rose 0.47 points from the previous month to 4.21 percent, and the general loan rate climbed 1.03 points to 10.51 percent.