South Korea's central bank held its policy rate in place for August on Thursday, extending its wait-and-see mode for a second straight month after sending the key rate to a record low level to bolster growth here.
In a widely expected move, the monetary policy board of the Bank of Korea voted to keep the key rate at 1.25 percent in August.
In June, the central bank made a surprise rate cut, citing a need to support the economy.
The country's exports have fallen every single month since the start of last year, while local spending, another major pillar of growth for Asia's fourth-largest economy, has also remained less than dull. In the January-June period, the country's consumer prices gained only 0.9 percent, far short of the central bank's 2 percent target for the 2016-2018 period.
Apparently recognizing worse-than-expected demand at home and abroad, the BOK slashed its growth outlook for the year to 2.7 percent in its latest quarterly revision announced last month. The latest outlook marked a 0.1 percentage point cut from 2.8 percent three months earlier.
Some have noted a need for an additional rate cut, but many others believe the BOK may be out of room at least for now as the country's household debt continues to rise at a record pace, while the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to hike its own rate before the year's end.
Household credit, reflecting total borrowing by local households, reached a record high of 1,223.7 trillion won ($1,118.6 billion) as of end-March.
In an earlier poll conducted by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency, a whopping 13 out of 14 economists surveyed forecast the BOK to hold the key rate in August. (Yonhap)
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