Posted on 09 Apr 2009
At a monthly policy meeting, the Bank of Korea left the benchmark seven-day repo rate unchanged for April at a record low two per cent.
Between October and February it had made six consecutive rate cuts totalling 3.25 percentage points.
Economists said the bank will likely leave the rate unchanged until the end of the first half to assess the impact of the earlier aggressive cuts.
A decline in the inflation rate, to an annual 3.9 per cent in March from 4.1 per cent a month earlier, also influenced the decision.
Industrial output dropped 10.3 per cent in February year-on-year, the fourth consecutive month of double-digit contraction. But the February data was better than some analysts had estimated.
The country recorded a record trade surplus of 4.6 billion dollars in March as the value of imports fell more sharply than exports.
