Government stimulus spurring South Koreans into debt binge

Seoul

SOUTH Korean households are piling on debt at the fastest rate in eight years thanks to big-bang stimulus launched by the new finance minister - but as global growth cools the government risks scoring an economic own goal and inflaming deflationary pressures.

That would be particularly ironic as Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan has repeatedly warned that Asia's fourth-largest economy is in peril of slipping into Japan-style deflation, which kept growth in the land of the rising sun stagnant for two decades.