Credit and leverage
Korea BBB- Credit Spread 3Y
The BBB- three-year corporate bond yield minus the three-year Korea Treasury yield. This spread is the extra funding cost lower-rated issuers pay over the government, a direct gauge of domestic credit caution.
Korea BBB- Credit Spread 3Y latest observations
- Observed
- 2026-10-28
- Latest
- 6.50 pp
- Change from previous
- ▼ -0.01 pp
Check the observation dates in both the summary and chart; release and refresh times can differ.
At a glance
Korea BBB- Credit Spread 3Y: latest value and prior change
As of 2026-10-27, Korea BBB- Credit Spread 3Y is 6.51 pp. It is 0.01 pp higher than 6.50 pp on 2026-10-26.
Within the default comparison window of 1,000 observations from 2022-09-27 to 2026-10-27, the latest value is at the tie-adjusted 54th percentile. Available history covers 2000-10-02 to 2026-10-27 with 6,455 observations.
- Observed on
- Default comparison window
- 2022-09-27–2026-10-27
- Observations · observed cadence
- 1,000 · Daily
- Data source
- Bank of Korea ECOS
A high or low percentile does not by itself make the indicator positive, negative, or a buy or sell signal.
2026-07-29 → 2026-10-27 · pp
- First
- 6.51 pp
- 2026-07-29
- Latest
- 6.51 pp
- 2026-10-27
- Window low
- 6.45 pp
- 2026-09-15
- Window high
- 6.52 pp
- 2026-08-05
The horizontal axis follows observation order; calendar intervals may differ. High and low refer to observed values within this window, not intraday or all-time extremes. Ties show the first observation date.
Time-series chart
Korea BBB- Credit Spread 3Y
2000-10-02–2026-10-27
Long-history series are stored as real provider observations. Index, FX, VIX, and ratio charts use historical backfill where providers expose it; Korean investor flow and margin-credit feeds expand as stable historical endpoints become available.
Recent observations and calculated changes
The ten latest chart observations. Change subtracts the previous observation; intervals vary with holidays, release schedules and missing data. A difference in rates or ratios is not an investment return.
| Observed | Value | Previous date | Difference (current − previous) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-27 | 6.51 pp | 2026-10-26 | 0.01 pp |
| 2026-10-26 | 6.50 pp | 2026-10-23 | -0.00 pp |
| 2026-10-23 | 6.50 pp | 2026-10-22 | 0.01 pp |
| 2026-10-22 | 6.49 pp | 2026-10-21 | -0.01 pp |
| 2026-10-21 | 6.50 pp | 2026-10-20 | 0.00 pp |
| 2026-10-20 | 6.50 pp | 2026-10-19 | 0.01 pp |
| 2026-10-19 | 6.49 pp | 2026-10-16 | -0.00 pp |
| 2026-10-16 | 6.49 pp | 2026-10-15 | 0.00 pp |
| 2026-10-15 | 6.49 pp | 2026-10-14 | -0.00 pp |
| 2026-10-14 | 6.49 pp | 2026-10-13 | -0.01 pp |
Source: Bank of Korea ECOS
Interpretation guide
Reading risk-premium expansion and compression in the BBB- spread
The Korea BBB- Credit Spread 3Y subtracts the 3-year government bond yield from the BBB- corporate yield, isolating the premium investors demand for bearing weak-credit risk. With the risk-free component removed, it reflects credit-market sentiment more purely than any outright corporate yield level.
A structurally wide spread
Because demand for BBB- paper in Korea is thin, this spread stays wide, in the multiple-percentage-point range, even in calm times. That makes absolute-level crisis thresholds, common for offshore high-yield spreads, the wrong tool; measuring the size and speed of changes over defined windows is the right one.
- Gradual widening over several months reads as slowly building credit caution.
- Widening of several tens of basis points within weeks is an early credit-crunch signal to take seriously.
- A reversal after a long compression phase is worth logging as a candidate credit-cycle turn.
How it behaves in crises
In past stress episodes, including the global financial crisis, the early pandemic, and domestic short-term funding squeezes, this spread has repeatedly blown out over short windows. Because sharp widening can coincide with or precede equity drawdowns, it gives stock investors a channel for detecting risk that originates in credit.
- Rapid widening combined with a jumping Korea CP 91D Rate makes a money-market squeeze the first thing to check.
- If the Korea Corporate Bond AA- 3Y spread also widens, stress has migrated into the high-grade tier.
- A confirmed peak and turn toward compression frequently accompanies risk-asset recovery phases.
Avoiding the level trap
Calling a crisis just because the spread is wide, or relaxing because it narrowed, are both traps. When government yields move violently, numerator and denominator can diverge and create spread illusions.
- Decompose every spread move into what the government yield did versus what the BBB- yield did.
- When policy support programs compress spreads artificially, assess the quality of that compression separately.
- If primary-market failures are rising while the quoted spread stays calm, trust the real-world stress signal.