SEOUL – South Korea’s central bank (South Korea) to freeze its main rate at record low of two percent for the ninth month. This is because of the uncertainty about the rate of economic growth.
Reporting from the AFP, Thursday (12/11/2009), the monthly policy meeting, Bank of Korea set the benchmark repo rate unchanged for the last seven days.
This has cut rates by a total of 3.25 percent between October 2008 and February due to a bid to slow the sharp economic downturn.
In a statement, the central bank said economic growth is likely to continue, but the spread of swine flu is a concern. It is also mentioned inflation remained stable for some time.
Therefore, central banks take cautious stance despite the recent series of positive numbers indicate the economy is recovering well from the global economic downturn.
In addition, the unemployment rate in October fell to the lowest level for 11 months and industrial output in September recorded the highest growth over 20 months.
As for gross domestic product rose 2.9 percent in July-September compared with April-June, the fastest growth in the quarter to quarter for more than seven years.
The government, however, has said it will not attract a stimulus measures in the near future, because the labor market remains weak and capital investment by the company is still slow.
