Loans extended to the self-employed by South Korean lenders spiked by more than 24 trillion won ($20 billion) in the past year since retired baby boomers opted to open their own businesses, data showed Friday.
  

Local banks' outstanding loans to the self-employed reached 222.9 trillion won as of the end of June, up 12.3 percent from 198.5 trillion won a year earlier, according to the data submitted to Rep. Kim Gi-juhn of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy by the Financial Supervisory Service.
  

The on-year gain is much higher than the 7.5 percent rise in overall loan growth during the same period.
  

By age, outstanding loans to borrowers in their 50s totaled 82.4 trillion won, accounting for 39.8 percent of the total.
  

Those extended to borrowers in their 40s took up 28.3 percent, followed by those in their 60s at 21.4 percent, the data showed, indicating that more than half of the loans went to people over 50.
  

South Korean baby boomers, which refer to those born between 1955 and 1966 in the aftermath of the Korean War, have been scrambling to run their own businesses after retirement.
  

The number of new businesses established in July hit a monthly high, jumping 9.9 percent on-year to 8,936, according to separate data by the Small and Medium Business Administration.
  

Those launched by people in their 50s accounted for 29.6 percent of the total.
  

Despite the growing trend for opening businesses, however, business prospects are seen as bleak.
  

Of the self-employed businesses set up in the 2004-2013 period, only 16.4 percent of them managed to survive, according to government data. (Yonhap)