Per-capita financial assets at 15.36 million won

Koreans tend to focus on investment in real estate and their financial assets are much smaller compared with investors in most other countries.

According to the Bank of Korea, as of the end of 1999, Koreans held an average of 15.36 million won per person in financial assets, such as stocks, bonds and bank deposits. The bank reported that the financial assets of Koreans total US$2.90 trillion, or about 3,233.41 trillion won.

Of the total, personal financial assets amount to US$646.5 billion, or 720 trillion won. That puts the per-capita financial assets at about US$13,784 or 15.36 million won. In this connection, the individually held portion of financial assets is 22.3% of the total.

On the other hand, Japan's financial assets amount to US$42.60 trillion, or 15 times bigger than that of Korea. And Japan's per-capita financial asset is US$61,602, which constitutes 27.2% of the total.

Taiwan's financial assets are smaller compared to Korea¡¯s with a total of US$1.80 trillion, but the country's individual financial assets are nearly double Korea's at US$36,018. And the individual portion accounts for 43.3% of the total financial assets.

Park Hyeon-Jin witness@donga.com