President Donald Trump announced he waived interest on all federal student loans “until further notice” by executive order at a press conference outside the White House Friday.

“That’s a big thing for a lot of students that are left in the middle right now,” he said.

Trump did not say when the order would go into effect. As of his announcement, the proposed order had not been filed under the Federal Register, which tracks executive orders.

The federal student loan interest rates for the 2019-20 school year are 4.53% for undergraduates and 6.08% for graduate students.

In 2019, there was $44.7 billion in federal student loans loaned to more than 1.2 million people in North Carolina. On average, student loan debt in North Carolina is $35,687 per borrower, according to the Federal Student Aid Office of the Department of Education.

Without interest rates, an undergraduate student with an average loan of $35,687, loaned over 10 years, will pay about $70 less per month. A graduate student will pay about $100 less per month. You can calculate individual loans here.

The announcement came as Trump declared a national emergency in response to the world-wide Coronavirus pandemic. The declaration frees up $42 billion in federal disaster relief funds to combat the virus, although it is unclear how the money will be used. As of Friday, there are 1,629 confirmed cases and 41 confirmed deaths in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

This is a developing story.

For more information on COVID-19 please visit:

 https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html

 https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019