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.
Kim Hyesung has the details.
The Bank of Korea on Tuesday kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at one-point-five percent.
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.
Inflation remains below the central bank's two percent target.
Consumer prices in January rose one percent on-year, the slowest pace in 17 months.
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.
Concern about household debt is another factor as raising the key rate would place an extra burden on households.
The country's household debt now hovers at around one-point-three trillion dollars, or 190 percent of GDP.
There are also growing external risks.
Policymakers wanted time to judge whether or by how much Washington's toughening trade policy stance would hurt the country's exports.
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 .
Kim Hyesung, Arirang News.