Based on the government's decision, the interest rate cap will also be extended to student loans; the Student Loan 1 will be available with an unchanged interest rate of 4.99 percent from January 2023, while the Education Loan and the Student Loan 2 can still be taken out interest-free by students in higher education, announced the Minister of Economic Development on the government's Facebook page.
Márton Nagy put it this way: the failed Brussels sanctions "shoved" energy prices and inflation. Historical records are falling one after the other, and the whole of Europe is suffering from this. The minister recalled that in order to break the sanctioned interest margin and thus to protect families and full employment, the government had previously introduced an interest rate freeze on household loans, and then extended this to the SME sector as well.
However, they did not stop there, the government examined the situation of student loans due to the drastically deteriorated interest rate environment, which has already been used by nearly 500,000 people and contributed to the obtaining of about 250,000 diplomas, he indicated.
"We found that if the government does not take action, the interest rate on the student loan1, which can be used freely, should be doubled, to more than 10 percent; this would have put more than 100,000 people in a difficult situation," said Márton Nagy.
The Hungarian government could not let the students pay the price of the blundering sanctions, and thousands of young Hungarians lose the opportunity to continue their education, he emphasized. He added: everything must be done so that those who want and are able to study, young people must be protected.
Aware of this, the government decided to extend the interest rate cap to student loans after the population and businesses, the minister of economic development said.
Source and image: Mandiner/MTI
