South Korea's central bank may not immediately raise its policy rate following an imminent U.S. rate hike, a member of the monetary policy board of the Bank of Korea said Thursday, calling the U.S. rate hike only one of many elements that need to be considered before such a decision.
  

"While the monetary policy board makes a decision on the key rate, policy rates of other major countries certainly are an element that need to be considered, but the most important element still is local economic conditions," Chung Soon-won said in a meeting with reporters.
  

"In other words, even if the United States raises its key rate, it may take some time before we consider raising our own rate unless our country's economy shows strong signs of recovery," he added.
  

There is a wide belief that the U.S. Federal Reserv may start hiking its policy rate before the end of the year, marking the first rate hike in nearly a decade.
  

Such a move is feared to prompt a mass outflow of capital from newly emerging markets, including South Korea.
  

BOK Gov. Lee Ju-yeol has said the impact of a U.S. rate hike on his country will be limited and differentiated from that on other developing nations, asserting that South Korea's economic fundamentals are much stronger than those of others.
  

Chung noted the U.S. rate hike will likely take place very gradually over an extended period of time to minimize any possible shock to the global financial market.
  

Also echoing the top central banker's earlier call, Chung, who is one of the seven monetary policy board members, pointed out a need to further strengthen the country's economic fundamentals through structural reforms that include industrial and corporate restructuring.
  

"Japan's recent economic conditions clearly show how difficult it is to emerge from an economic slump without restructuring in that Japan has posted negative growths for two consecutive quarters despite its quantitative easing over the past three years," he said. (Yonhap)