South Korean Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki (pictured) noted on Friday the need to cut maximum interest rates for private lenders amid the financial crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Hong explained the government would first analyze market interest rates and other factors before it determined a new maximum legal lending rate, which had previously been lowered from 27.9% to 24% in 2018.
The minister recently said he expected the country's economy would start growing in the third quarter of 2020 after Seoul introduced a stimulus worth 160 trillion won ($133 billion). The Bank of Korea (BOK) previously predicted the national output could shrink up to 1.8% by the end of the year.
