South Korea’s central bank stood pat on interest rates on Thursday and signalled policy would stay unchanged for the next six months as a chip boom in exports and steady inflation allow policymakers more time to assess financial stability risks.
The Bank of Korea’s seven-member monetary policy board voted to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 2.50%, as expected by all 34 economists polled by Reuters.
The central bank raised this year’s growth forecast to 2.0% from 1.8% previously.
It also introduced the Federal Reserve’s dot plot style chart on Thursday that shows where the policy interest rate would be in the next six months. Of the 21 dots, 16 were at 2.50%, meaning a predominant view for no change in the rate until at least August this year.
South Korea’s policy-sensitive three-year treasury bond futures KTBc1 rose as much as 0.21 points to 105.49.
