BOK Governor Lee Ju-yeol (Source: Yonhapnews) RoK’s news agency Yonhap reported that in a widely expected move, the monetary policy board of the Bank of Korea (BOK) voted to keep the key rate at 1.25 percent, extending its wait-and-see approach for the 13th consecutive month.
In June last year, the central bank made a surprise rate cut, citing a need to stimulate the lackluster economy amid a prolonged economic slowdown.
Besides, BOK also revised up its growth outlook for Asia's fourth-largest economy this year to 2.8 percent from 2.6 percent.
BOK Governor Lee Ju-yeol announced the estimate in a news conference after the BOK Monetary Policy Board kept its policy rate at an all-time low of 1.25 percent in July.
The BOK's gross domestic product (GDP) growth estimate for 2017 is 0.2 percentage point higher than the central bank's estimate released in April.
Lee said the BOK's latest revision did not take into account the extra budget of 11.2 trillion-won (9.83 billion USD) being sought by the government.
The RoK government submitted the extra budget to the National Assembly in June, though parliament has yet to review the bill due to a political standoff.-VNA
VNA
