Korean banks' average lending rate moved up in March from the previous month mainly due to the slight rise in rates offered to businesses, the central bank said Thursday.

The average interest rate on new household, corporate and public sector loans stood at 5.74 percent last month, up 0.03 percentage point from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The bank lending rate on new household loans fell 0.05 percentage point to 5.62 percent, with the interest on fresh corporate loans moving up 0.05 percentage point to 5.79 percent, the central bank said.

The average rate on loans extended to companies stood at 4.95 percent, a slight dip of 0.02 percentage point from February.

"Lenders marked up rates on loans offered to companies after they cut 0.09 percentage point in February," a BOK official said. "This move caused last month's rates to go up."

The central bank also said the interest rates on loans extended by savings banks averaged 14.88 percent last month, down 0.84 percentage points from the month before.

The average lending rate charged by domestic credit unions inched up 0.03 percentage point to 7.26 percent, with the figure for mutual credit unions dipping to 6.25 percent from 6.26 percent tallied for February, according to the BOK. (Yonhap)