The central bank has kept the key interest rate steady amid concerns about the weak local currency. 

After its Monetary Policy Board held a rate-setting meeting Thursday, the Bank of Korea announced that it will freeze its key lending rate at three percent. 

The decision, which comes after back-to-back rate cuts in October and November, is attributed to concerns about continued volatility in the foreign exchange market.

The local currency weakened past one-thousand-410 won against the U.S. dollar in mid-November after the reelection of Donald Trump and crumbled past one-thousand-480 won at the end of last year, after President Yoon Suk Yeol briefly put the country under martial law. 

The U.S. Federal Reserve’s projection of fewer reductions this year appears to have been another important factor in the BOK’s decision to freeze its key rate.