South Korean banks’ lending rates fell to a fresh record low in November as market interest rates declined amid the central bank’s monetary easing, the Bank of Korea said Friday.

The average rate for banks’ new loans to households and firms stood at 4.94 percent last month, down 0.04 percentage point from the previous month, according to the BOK.

The November data marked the lowest level since 1996 when the central bank began to compile related data.

The BOK lowered the key interest rates in July and October in a bid to prop up the slowing economy, beset by the protracted eurozone debt crisis.

A cut in the central bank’s policy rate usually drives down market rates, causing banks’ lending rates moving in tandem with market rates to fall.

The average rate for fresh lending to households reached 4.74 percent in November, down 0.1 percentage point from the previous month, it added. (Yonhap News)