Anchor: South Korea’s central bank has frozen the nation’s key interest rate at one-and-a-half percent for the eleventh straight month. Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol said the central bank will, from now on, take into consideration the impacts of corporate restructuring efforts when adjusting the key interest rate. He added that the bank is discussing with related agencies ways to expand state-run banks’ capital.
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.
 
Report: The Bank of Korea(BOK) has frozen the nation’s key interest rate at one-and-a-half percent for the eleventh consecutive month.
  
The central bank decided to keep the record-low rate steady for May during its monthly monetary policy meeting on Friday.
 
The BOK lowered the rate four times between August 2014 and June last year by a total of one percentage point but left it unchanged ever since.
 
Friday's meeting was the first of its kind since four new members joined the monetary policy committee last month.
 
While making the unanimous rate decision, committee members blamed overseas economic conditions for uncertainties surrounding the nation's growth prospects.
    
The rate freeze came amid rekindled speculations that U.S. benchmark interest rates will begin to rise soon and as the recovery of the South Korean economy is still feeble as it marked only zero-point-four percent growth in the first quarter. 
 
With committee members pledging policies conducive to growth, BOK Governor Lee Ju-yeol also hinted that a further interest rate cut is imminent, saying the current easing bias will continue.
 
He also stressed that the bank will closely review developments in corporate restructuring and consider the impact of such efforts on the economy when making future rate decisions. 

On the contested issue of resourcing money needed for corporate restructuring, Lee said that the BOK is discussing a bank recapitalization fund, among other options.
 
The governor was quick to reiterate that the central bank’s losses must be minimized under any circumstances.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.