The Bank of Korea on Tuesday left the key interest rate at 1.5 percent, the lowest on record, for the 10th consecutive month.

The decision was expected by 86 percent of 200 bond market participants in a survey. The BOK last moved the rate in June last year. 


Four of the seven members of the bank’s monetary policy board are to be replaced Thursday by figures who, local media say, seem dovish.

The central bank now expects the Korean economy to grow 2.8 percent in 2016, not 3 percent as it previously forecast, BOK Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said.

“The current interest level is accomodative,” he stressed, adding that the question now was whether to make it “ultra-accomodative.”

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)