SEOUL, April 18 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's central bank on Thursday froze its benchmark interest rate at 1.75 percent, refraining from altering the rate since November last year.
Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Lee Ju-yeol and six other monetary policy board members kept the seven-day repurchase rate on hold at 1.75 percent.
It was in line with market expectations. According to a Korea Financial Investment Association (KFIA) survey of 200 fixed-income experts, 97 percent predicted the rate freeze.
The rate on hold came on rising concern about economic slowdown stemming from the falling export, which takes up about half of the export-driven economy.
The country's export kept falling since December last year due mainly to lower price for semiconductor, which had led the overall export expansion in the past, and the global economic slump.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) maintained its growth outlook for the South Korean economy in 2019 at 2.6 percent despite the lowered forecast for the global economy by 0.2 percentage points to 3.3 percent.
The IMF recommended the South Korean government be required to draw up a supplementary budget plan worth about 9 trillion won (7.9 billion U.S. dollars), or 0.5 percent of the country's gross domestic product, to meet the government's growth target of 2.6 percent to 2.7 percent this year.
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