(MENAFN- AFP) South Korea's central bank on Thursday kept the key interest rate unchanged at 2.0 percent for November, citing uncertainty over the modest recovery in the global economy and a weak yen.
The decision came after the Bank of Korea cut the overnight inter-bank lending rate twice in August and October.
The current 2.0 percent rate matches a record low last seen from February 2009 through June 2010, when Asia's fourth-largest economy was seeking to recover from the global financial crisis.
Signs of slowing growth posed an increasing challenge to Seoul policymakers, with a weak yen hurting the price competitiveness of South Korean firms against Japanese rivals in overseas markets.
In a statement, the BOK forecast that the global economy would "sustain its modest recovery going forward" but warned of destabilising variables like sluggishness in the eurozone and slowing growth in some emerging markets.
The central bank last month slashed its growth forecast for this year to 3.5 percent from 3.8 percent, following growth of three percent in 2013.
It also lowered the growth estimate for 2015 to 3.9 percent from four percent.
The central bank expects inflation to accelerate to 1.9 percent in 2014 following a 1.3 percent increase in 2013 -- the slowest for 14 years.
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