President Yoon Suk Yeol pledged to expand loans for the working class as part of strengthened efforts to ease the burden of persistently high interest.

The promise came during Yoon’s speech to the National Assembly on the 2024 state budget on Tuesday, saying that inflation as felt by the public remains high, while household burdens from the protracted high interest rates have worsened.

The president promised to prioritize policies aimed at stabilizing prices as well as public livelihoods and put forth his best effort to implement them.

He also vowed to run a pan-government price stabilization system to focus on managing consumer prices while lowering the cost of necessities, such as housing, transportation and telecommunication, for vulnerable groups.