Bond issuance in South Korea rose sharply in January from the previous month in the wake of rising interest rates, industry data showed Thursday.

The value of bonds sold in Asia's fourth-largest economy stood at 66.6 trillion won ($55.7 billion) last month, up 21.6 trillion won from a month earlier, according to the data from the Korea Financial Investment Association.

Sales of government bonds jumped by 10.8 trillion won, and corporate bond sales expanded by 8.8 trillion won.

The issuance of financial bonds grew by 3.4 trillion won, with that of monetary stabilization bonds going up 2.9 trillion won.

Sales of environment, social and governance (ESG) bonds increased by 121 billion won to 3.7 trillion won, while those of asset-backed securities declined by 1.7 trillion won.

ESG bonds are a type of sustainability debt offering aimed at financing corporate activities in environmentally friendly and sustainable projects.

Foreign investors bought a net 7.2 trillion won worth of South Korean bonds in January, with their holdings of local bonds hitting an all-time high of 217.8 trillion won, up 3.3 trillion won from the prior month.

As of end-January, the value of outstanding bonds in the country reached 2,490.6 trillion won, up 28.1 trillion won from December, according to the data. (Yonhap)