S Korea's central bank freezes upper limit for loans to small firms

South Korea's central bank Thursday decided to freeze the ceiling on low-rate loans to be extended to small businesses for the second quarter in a bid to promote funding opportunities for small firms.

According to the Bank of Korea (BOK), it decided to leave the ceiling as the status quo of 10 trillion won (8.75 billion U.S. dollars).

The BOK raised the ceiling by a total of 3.5 trillion won (3.06 billion U.S. dollars) between October 2008 and March 2009 amid the global financial crisis.

The decision came during a regular BOK policy meeting in the day amid forecasts that the BOK may cut the loan cap in the near future to withdraw emergency measures taken during the global economic downturn.

Despite conflicting disputes over whether to withdraw liquidity, the BOK kept the key interest rate at a record low of 2 percent, citing the need to further bolster the economy.

Source: Xinhua