As widely expected, South Korea's central bank kept its key rate steady at its monetary policy meeting held earlier today.<br />Kim Hyesung reports.<br /><br />The Bank of Korea on Friday kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1-point-75 percent .<br />This marks the fourth straight rate freeze after it raised its key rate by a-quarter-of-a-percent last November.<br />Sluggish domestic economic data have put pressure on the central bank to cut rates and help boost the economy, but growing external uncertainties over the U.S.-China trade dispute and concerns over possible capital flight prompted the BOK to hold rates steady.<br />The South Korean won has weakened more than five percent in the last three months to near 12-hundred won against the greenback, the worst performer in Asia....so cutting rates too soon could knock the won even lower, creating capital flight risks.<br />Exports, a key driver of South Korea's domestic growth, have fallen for five straight months since December on lower global demand.<br />For the first 20 days in May, exports tumbled 12 percent on-year, with chip sector shipments plunging 22 percent, set for a sixth straight month of decline.<br />The local economy contracted zero-point-three percent in the first quarter of 2019 on falling exports and investment, the slowest growth since the 2008 global financial crisis.<br />Headline inflation remained at around zero-point-five percent through April, lower than the central bank's two percent target and its forecast of 1-point-one percent for this year.<br />Kim Hyesung, Arirang News.<br />
