Bond sales in South Korea dropped from a month earlier in July amid a decline in new government and corporate bond issues, data showed Thursday. The value of bonds sold last month came to 71.8 trillion won (US$52.1 billion), down 3.1 trillion won from a month earlier, according to the data from the Korea Financial Investment Association. The value of outstanding bonds, on the other hand, gained 2.9 trillion won on-month to 2,800.7 trillion won as the net issuance of government and financial bonds increased over the cited period. Government bond issuance stood at 21.6 trillion won in July, down 5.3 trillion won from the previous month, while corporate bond issuance dipped 2.9 trillion won to 7.8 trillion won over the cited period. Demand forecasting for corporate bonds came to 2.8 trillion won in July, up 625 billion won from the same month last year. Sales of environment, social and governance bonds, a type of sustainability debt offering aimed at financing corporate activities in environmentally friend ly and sustainable projects, came to 4.7 trillion won last month, down 2.1 trillion won from the previous month. In July, foreign investors net purchased 2.5 trillion won worth of local bonds, including 3.9 trillion won in government Treasurys, bringing their total bond holdings to 252 trillion won as of end-July. Source : Yonhap News Agency