SEOUL, May 23 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's household credit logged the biggest fall in the first quarter due to interest rate hikes, central bank data showed Tuesday.

Household credit, which refers to debts owed by households to banks and other lenders in addition to the purchase on credit, came in at 1,853.9 trillion won (1.41 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of March, down 13.7 trillion won (10.4 billion dollars) from three months earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

It marked the largest quarterly fall since relevant data began to be compiled in the fourth quarter of 2002, keeping a downward trend for the second consecutive quarter.

The central bank had hiked its benchmark interest rate by 3.0 percentage points to 3.50 percent in January this year for the past one and a half years.

Excluding the purchase on credit, the household debts diminished 10.3 trillion won (7.9 billion dollars) from three months earlier to 1,739.5 trillion won (1.33 trillion dollars) at the end of March.

Mortgage loans to households gained 5.3 trillion won (4 billion dollars) during the January-March quarter, but credit loans plunged 15.6 trillion won (billion dollars), continuing to slide for the sixth straight quarter.

The purchase on credit retreated 3.4 trillion won (2.6 billion dollars) from three months earlier to 114.4 trillion won (87.2 billion dollars) at the end of March.