korea housing finance

The interest rate on state-backed educational loans for this year has risen to 7.65 percent. The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development and the Korea Housing Finance Corporation announced Sunday that the rate for this year's educational loan increased more than one percentage point from 2007. ``This increase was inevitable because the interest rate of 5-year Treasury Bond, which has served as a yardstick in deciding the interest rate for other loan programs, increased 1.3 percent, compared to that in 2007,'' said the ministry. To ease the burden on those suffering financial hardship, the ministry decided to extend the number of beneficiaries of the loan program with last year's interest rate to 383,000 from 169,000. Around 70,000 in the lowest income bracket would be able to use the program without interest. The ministry would receive loan applications from Monday through March 28. Undergraduates and graduates belonging to Korean universities would be eligible candidates. ``We plan to enhance the screening process in selecting students who benefit from the loan program to run the program stably. Thus, students who want to use the state-backed loan program need to manage their credit,'' the ministry said.