Korea Business News Agency - NSP NEWS AGENCY.

Rhee Chang Yong, governor of the Bank of Korea, chairs the Monetary Policy Bank meeting at the Bank of Korea building in Jung-gu Seoul on the morning of June 13. (사진 = Courtecy of BOK)

(Seoul=NSP NEWS AGENCY) = Bank of Korea’s Monetary Policy Board (MPB) chose to keep the base rate at 3.5%, from promising signs of a “steady declining in exports and slightly better growth rate” on July 13. It also saw that the inflation rate will be beyond 3% or so again after August.

MPB planned to freeze the base rate to the current level (3.5%) until making the next decision for monetary direction.

About the background of its decision, MPB explained, “smoothen decline in exports helped relieve the sluggish growth” and “overall employment shows good signs, including continued better-than-expected new jobs increase.”

Also, it added, “we expect a recovery of growth rate as consumer confidence continues to be improved with better export performance backed by reviving IT industry,” and expected “1.4% of 2023 annual growth rate, which is matched with May outlook.”

About the consumer price index, “as expected before, increase in consumer prices plummetted to 2.7% in June from last month’s 3.3%, keeping its slow trend” and “core inflation rate (inflation other than food and energy) went down to 3.5% in June from last month’s 3.9%, while short term inflation showed the same 3.5% than last month” said MPB.

By Hyun-jin Kim(kimhj30310@nspna.com) and Soo-in Kang(sink606@nspna.com)

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