SEOUL, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Seoul's central bank on Thursday decided to maintain the cap on low-rate loans to smaller businesses at the current level for the first quarter of 2010 in a bid to provide them with an extended opportunity to secure more funding.

    The Bank of Korea (BOK) said it decided to freeze the limit at 10 trillion won (8.5 billion U.S. dollars), the level it reached in March, raising the level from 3.5 trillion won (3 billion U.S. dollars) in October 2008.

    The loans, which the BOK extends through commercial banks to small and medium enterprises, bear an annual interest of 1.25 percent.

    The decision came after the South Korean government in mid-December announced to keep up with its expansionary macroeconomic policies next year to bolster the real economy.

    Amid a heated debate over when to roll back the accommodative monetary policy, the BOK announced earlier in the month to freeze its key interest rate at the current record-low of 2 percent.