SEOUL, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's central bank on Friday froze its benchmark interest rate at a record low to see the effect of policy rate cut in the previous month.
Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Lee Ju-yeol and six other policy board members decided to leave the benchmark 7-day repurchase rate unchanged at 1.25 percent.
The central bankers slashed the target rate by 25 basis points to the current record-low level in October, just three months after lowering it from 1.75 percent and 1.50 percent in July.
It was in line with market expectations. According to a Korea Financial Investment Association (FKIA) survey of 200 fixed-income experts, 99 percent predicted a rate on hold this month.
Despite lingering external uncertainties such as the global trade dispute and the semiconductor industry's downturn, the BOK refrained from altering the policy rate to wait and see the effect of rate cuts for the past months.
Amid the external uncertainties, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised down its 2019 growth outlook for the South Korean economy to 2.0 percent early October from 2.6 percent estimated six months earlier.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) downgraded this year's growth forecast for the economy from 2.4 percent to 2.1 percent in September.
South Korea's real gross domestic product (GDP), adjusted for inflation, added 0.4 percent in the third quarter from three months earlier, after expanding 1.0 percent in the second quarter.
Export, which accounts for around half of the export-driven economy, dropped 14.7 percent in October from a year earlier, keeping a downward trend for 11 straight months since December last year.
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