The Bank of Korea(BOK) has retained its benchmark interest rate at one-point-five percent amid a slump in the local job market and the continuing U.S.-China trade war. 
  
The BOK's monetary policy board on Thursday held a monthly meeting to freeze the lending rate at the current level as widely expected. 

The central bank also indicated that it will downgrade its three percent growth forecast for this year, saying the economic growth trend will fall slightly short of its outlook projected in April.

The bank has kept the key rate unchanged for eight months since November last year, when it raised it by a quarter of a percentage point for the first time in more than six years. 

In June, the U.S. Federal Reserve raised the base rate by 25 basis points to the one-point-75 to two percent range. The widened rate difference between South Korea and the U.S. has sparked concerns of an outflow of foreign investment from the South.