Central Bank of South Korea keeps interest rate at 3.5%

The Bank of Korea (BOK) has kept the key interest rate steady at 3.5 percent for the eighth consecutive time, Report informs referring to KBS World.

The decision was made during the year’s first rate-setting session by the BOK’s monetary policy board, maintaining the largest-ever two-percentage-point gap with the US Federal Reserve’s rate.

Following ten post-pandemic hikes amounting to three percentage points through January of 2023, the board has left the rate untouched at 3.5 percent since last year’s February session.

The BOK apparently took into account inflation, which has stayed above three percent for the fifth straight month, as well as persistent growth in household debt.