Unused funds in the government's fiscal investment and loan program totaled 8.5 trillion yen in fiscal 1999, the second largest on record after the 10.1 trillion yen remaining in fiscal 1995, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.
Housing Loan Corp. did not use 2.5 trillion yen, one-quarter of its budget allotted under the program for fiscal 1999, which ended March 31.
The state-run corporation did not use as much of its budget as planned because continued low interest rates prompted people who took out housing loans at high rates to advance repayments with new low-rate loans.
Advance repayments came to 6.6 trillion yen in fiscal 1999, twice the sum the corporation had expected.
Among other public corporations financed by the program, the Development Bank of Japan did not use 1.45 trillion yen, or 45 percent of its fiscal 1999 budget.
The program, known as "zaito" and long known as Japan's "second budget" because of its huge scale,is mainly financed with funds from the state-run postal savings and public pension programs.