At its second monetary policy meeting of 2018, South Korea's central bank has stood pat on its key interest rate of one-and-a-half percent.<br />Kim Hyesung has the details. <br /> The Bank of Korea on Tuesday kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at one-point-five percent.<br />This is the second freeze, following a rate hike in November, when the BOK raised its record low interest rate for the first time in over six years by a quarter percentage point. <br />Inflation remains below the central bank's two percent target.<br />Consumer prices in January rose one percent on-year, the slowest pace in 17 months.<br /> Core CPI, which excludes agriculture and oil prices, also slowed from a one-point-five percent rise in December to one-point-one percent in January. <br /> Concern about household debt is another factor as raising the key rate would place an extra burden on households.<br />The country's household debt now hovers at around one-point-three trillion dollars, or 190 percent of GDP. <br />There are also growing external risks.<br />Policymakers wanted time to judge whether or by how much Washington's toughening trade policy stance would hurt the country's exports.<br /> Experts say Korea's central bank is likely to raise rates sometime in May or later, after the U.S. Federal Reserve hikes its interest rates . <br />Kim Hyesung, Arirang News. <br />
