Bank of Korea Holds Rates at 2.50%

South Korea’s central bank held interest rates steady for a 13th consecutive month on Thursday, while most analysts see the bank raising rates as soon as next quarter on expectations for rising inflation amid sustained economic recovery.

The Bank of Korea’s monetary policy committee left its base rate unchanged at 2.50 percent, a media official said without elaborating. Governor Lee Ju-yeol is due to hold a news conference from 11:20 a.m. (0220 GMT)

The 30 analysts surveyed by Reuters before the meeting were unanimous in forecasting the central bank would hold its policy rate steady in June, while a large majority predicted the Bank of Korea would hike rates when it next moves them.

The central bank expects growth in Asia’s fourth-largest economy to reach 4.0 percent this year from 3.0 percent last year and inflation to quicken to 2.1 percent from 1.3 percent in 2013.

via CNBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency
trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza