Seoul: Banks' loan rates fell for the fifth straight month in April, data showed Tuesday, as the central bank has been on a monetary easing cycle. The average lending rate of banks applied to new loans came to 4.19 percent last month, down 0.17 percentage point from a month earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).
According to Yonhap News Agency, the rate has been on a constant decline since December 2024. In detail, banks' average lending rate for corporate loans shed 0.18 percentage point to 4.14 percent, while their lending rate on household loans lost 0.15 percentage point to 4.36 percent.
The rate that banks pay for deposits also fell 0.13 percentage point to 2.71 percent, marking the seventh consecutive monthly decline. The spread on banks' lending and deposit rates, accordingly, narrowed to 1.48 percentage points in April from the previous month's 1.52 percentage points, the data showed.