Last year, the net worth of Korea's corporations excluding financial companies was 3,657.5 trillion won, down 1,005.3 trillion won (21.6%) from a year earlier. The decline was the largest since related statistics have been compiled. The Bank of Korea (BOK) said, "Stock is an asset for holders but a liability for issuing corporations," adding, "Given the sharp rise in the KOSPI index last year, net worth appears to have decreased."
On the 22nd, the Bank of Korea and the Ministry of Data and Statistics (MODS) released the "2025 national balance sheet (preliminary)." The national balance sheet is a kind of ledger that records national wealth by adding up all domestic and overseas asset holdings of Korea's economic agents, including household, corporations, and government, as of the end of each year. It has been compiled since 1995 to assess the state of wealth our economy has built up so far.
Last year, household and nonprofit institutions, general government, and financial corporations all saw net worth increase from a year earlier. In contrast, only nonfinancial corporations posted a sharp decline. That is because corporations' nonfinancial assets such as real estate rose by 234 trillion won, while net financial worth such as stocks fell by 1,239 trillion won.
An official at the Bank of Korea (BOK) said, "In the national accounts, stocks are financial assets for holders, but issuing corporations are required to record them as financial liabilities." The official added, "Because the KOSPI index rose so much last year, we judged that factor to be decisive." Buoyed by the rise in the KOSPI index, the value of stocks issued by corporations swelled, which was recorded on the books as a large increase in financial liabilities.