[THE INVESTOR] Investors in South Korea are increasingly preferring safe assets and managing them on a short-term basis amid the increased uncertainties, according to data compiled by the Bank of Korea on July 8.

The outstanding value of short-term financial products such as demand deposits and time deposits with a maturity of less than six months amounted to 876.2 trillion won (US$757 billion) as of end-May, up 3.3 percent from 848.6 trillion won at end-December, the data showed.

Such short-term deposits accounted for 43 percent of total deposits worth 2,027.5 trillion won at local lenders, the data said.

Money that flowed into bond funds came to 281.4 trillion won in end-May, and when the safe but less profitable money deposits are taken into consideration, the total value of short-term deposits and money parked at bond funds and other safe vehicles reached 1,157.6 trillion won at end-May, the central bank said.

“As local financial institutions offer record-low rates of less than 2 percent for periodical and time deposits, customers temporarily put their money into short-term products such as demand deposits or periodical deposits with a maturity of fewer than 6 months,” a BOK official said.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)