An additional sum of 35 mln lei will be allocated from the state budget for releasing preferential housing loans, following a decision approved by the Government on October 17. According to the Ministry of Finance, some 17.7 mln lei will be needed to reimburse the credits offered to certain categories of people under the guarantee of the local public authorities, 14.4 mln lei to pay the interest on the credits and 1.4 mln lei to compensate the banks that released credits to the house building cooperatives for the failed incomes. A sum of 23.5 mln lei was earmarked in the state budget law for 2007 for subsidizing the interest and reimbursing the preferential bank credits offered to the population and house building cooperatives. Some 23.0 mln lei of this (97.9%) was already used by September 1, 2007. The Ministry of Finance says that the number of beneficiaries of preferential credits will amount to 4,650 by the end of 2007. The sums afferent to preferential lending paid from the state budget will total over 315 mln lei. According to the information provided by the financial institutions and local public authorities, 3,658 people received preferential credits by September 1, 2007 under the Government Decision No. 1146 of October 15, 2004 “Regarding the preferential credits for certain categories of people”. A number of 336 people got such credits in 2005, 1,450 - in 2006, and 1,872 – in the first eight months of 2007. The preferential credits released in this period added up to 244.5 mln lei. A sum of 152.9 mln lei of this is guaranteed by the local authorities and 95.7 mln lei represent the interest on preferential credits.