Central Lender Chief Hints at Charge Hike
29 May, 2021
Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol has hinted in raising the benchmark interest this year after an archive amount of almost zero interest.
"The charge hike this year will depend on the pace of economical recovery," Lee told reporters after a monetary policy meeting in Thursday.
The central bank raised Korea's economical growth outlook to four percent for this year on the effectiveness of robust exports therefore of the recovering global economy, up from three percent forecast in February.
But it froze the gross annual benchmark fee at 0.5 percent, the rate it occur May last year.
"It's herbal to readjust the unusually low interest rate that is kept because the outbreak of coronavirus if the monetary situation improves," Lee said.
"We shouldn't hurry, but we're also considering potential side results we might suffer if we have too long."
Just last month, he said that the BOK would need to keep up with the low rate until it became sure that the economy was on a recovery path.
Lee's change of center seems to have already been prompted by a good sharp upsurge in household debts to an archive W1,765 trillion (US$1=W1,117).
"We must curb the sharp upsurge in household credit debt," he said. "I think we have to respond before it's as well late."
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