The debt of South Korea’s public sector rose nearly 10 percent in the first quarter of this year from a year earlier due to increased spending on state projects and government efforts to curb public utility charges, data showed Sunday.

The outstanding debt of the government and nonfinancial state-owned corporations came to 842.27 trillion won ($738.5 billion) as of the end of March, up 9.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the data by the finance ministry and the Bank of Korea.

The figure is 2.6 times the government’s total budget of 325.4 trillion won for this year. Compared with three months earlier, the public-sector debt rose by roughly 40 trillion won.

The sharp increase in the public-sector debt was attributed to big spending on large-scale state projects, including the one to refurbish the country’s four major rivers.

Also responsible were the government’s move to rein in electricity rates and other public utility charges in order to keep consumer inflation in check, which worsened the profitability of state companies.

According to the data, the central government, provincial administrations, the state pension fund and other social welfare agencies had a combined debt of 455.34 trillion won as of the end of March, up 9.6 percent from a year earlier.

Over the cited period, nonfinancial state-run companies saw their liabilities increase 10.2 percent to 388.92 trillion won.

The growth rate of the public-sector debt was much higher than that for the private sector. The debt of nonfinancial private companies had 1,543.59 trillion won in debt as of end-March, up 5.5 percent from a year earlier. (Yonhap News)