SEOUL, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's central bank on Thursday froze its policy rate at a record low on lingering worry about the continued COVID-19 pandemic.
Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Lee Ju-yeol and six monetary policy board members decided to leave the benchmark seven-day repurchase rate unchanged at an all-time low of 0.50 percent. The rate has been kept in place since May last year.
It was in line with market expectations. According to a Korea Financial Investment Association (KFIA) survey of 100 fixed-income experts, 99 percent predicted the rate freeze.
Concerns remained about the pandemic, which resurged here since November last year and led the government to tighten quarantine measures.
The pandemic showed signs of let-up this year, but the daily number of confirmed cases remained in triple figures.
In the latest tally, South Korea reported 396 more cases of COVID-19 for the past 24 hours, raising the total number of infections to 88,516. Enditem
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