IN BRIEF (Page 5)

Nation ranks 2nd for social net wealth

China's social net wealth, an important gauge of overall national strength, totaled 437 trillion yuan ($64 trillion) in 2016, second only to the United States, a report showed. By the end of 2016, China had 424 trillion yuan in domestic nonfinancial assets and 13 trillion yuan in external net assets, according to a report released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The country's total net wealth was equivalent to 70.7 percent of the US level in the same period.

S. Korea's mortgage rate decreases