Anchor: The Bank of Korea(BOK) froze the benchmark interest rate at one-point-75 percent for a third consecutive month. 
Bae Joo-yon has more. 

Report: The central bank’s monetary policy board on Thursday decided to keep the base interest rate at one-point-75 percent for February, following a quarter percentage point hike made last November. 

The bank announced it decided to keep the key rate unchanged as global economic growth has somewhat slowed and as the domestic economy is not facing any serious inflationary pressure. 

The BOK said that like last month, February saw market volatility decline amid the possibility of the U.S. Federal Reserve adjusting the speed of its rate hikes and growing anticipation that the U.S.-China trade talks will make headway. 

The bank said it believes that the world economy and the global financial market will be affected by how far protectionism spreads, how fast key economies normalize their monetary policies and to what extent uncertainty regarding Brexit will be reduced. 

On the domestic economy, the BOK said although export growth slowed down, consumption continued to increase, driving the economy to expand at the potential growth rate. 

The bank added it will maintain its accommodative policy as the nation is unlikely to witness any major inflationary pressure for the time being. 
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.