[BRIEFLY]Household telecom spending lower

The proportion of Korean households` expenditure accounted for by telecommunications costs fell for the eighth consecutive year in 2008, a Bank of Korea report showed yesterday.

According to the BOK report, telecommunications costs, which include mobile and fixed line telephones and internet services, fell to 4.4 percent from the 4.5 percent recorded in 2007.

The proportion of household spending accounted for by telecommunications costs has been falling since 2000 when it was recorded at 5.4 percent.

In contrast, medical and welfare related expenditures` portion of the total rose from 3.9 percent to 6 percent while that of education increased from 5.4 percent to 7.3 percent over the same period.

Of the 11 categories, excluding miscellaneous, telecom costs took up the ninth largest proportion of Korean household spending last year.

(cheesuk@heraldm.com)