South Korea’s central bank on Thursday left its key interest rate unchanged at a record-low 1.5 percent for the fifth straight month ahead of a possible US rate hike.
The decision by the Bank of Korea was widely expected, following a cut of 0.25 basis points in June.
The central bank has cut a total of one percentage point over the past year. In August last year, the rate was cut from 2.5 percentage to 2.25 percent and then to 2.0 percent in October, 1.75 percent in March and to 1.5 percent in June this year.
South Korea’s economic growth reached a five-year high in the third quarter thanks to a strong rebound in domestic demand, getting out of a deep slump caused by the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak in May.
The fourth largest economy in Asia expanded by 1.2 percent in the July-September period, the fastest on-quarter growth since the second quarter of 2010, and up from just 0.3 percent in the April-June period.
The central bank said consumers had ventured back into shopping malls as the threat posed by a serious outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) had receded.