Anchor: The Bank of Korea has decided to keep this month’s benchmark interest at one-point-25 percent. The decision was reached during the bank’s first monetary policy meeting held since the launch of the Moon Jae-in government. The central bank also forecast that the nation’s economy will post higher growth than the two-point-six percent growth it projected last month. Our Bae Joo-yon has more.
 
Report: The Bank of Korea(BOK) has decided to keep the benchmark interest rate steady at one-point-25 percent. 
 
The BOK monetary policy board on Thursday held a monthly meeting to freeze the lending rate at the record low level.
 
The South Korean central bank has kept the rate steady since slashing it by a quarter of a percentage point to the current level in June of last year.
 
The decision comes as the Korean economy is showing signs of recovery with increasing exports and higher consumer prices. 
 
The central bank projected that the nation’s economy will post slightly higher growth than the two-point-six percent growth it had initially projected last month, hinting a revision to the growth outlook in its upcoming July report. 
 
On the nation’s household debt nearing one-point-360 quadrillion won, or one-point-21 trillion dollars, the bank said the pace of debt growth showed signs of slowing down.
 
BOK Governor Lee Ju-yeol reaffirmed that the central bank will not automatically respond to a possible rate hike in the U.S.
 
The bank will continue to keep monetary easing while thoroughly study the directions of the U.S. Federal Reserve and the new South Korean government’s policies.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.