The nation's central bank keeps its key rate unchanged.
The Bank of Korea maintains its benchmark interest rate at one-point-five percent in its fourth session of the year on Thursday.
Won Jung-hwan has more from the BOK's monetary meeting that took place in Seoul this morning.

The Bank of Korea says it is keeping the policy rate steady at one-point-five percent,... continuing its wait-and-see approach for the sixth straight month.
It was widely expected,... but the move comes as the latest economic data showed that Korea may be in a downside cycle.
The BOK says it will maintain its policy of monetary easing for the time being,... as it monitors the rate of global economic growth as well as the trade protectionist stances of other major economies.

The top central banker Lee Ju-yeol recently said that the local economy currently faces challenged in the months to come,... such as weak job creation and staggering household debt. Consumer price inflation has also been hovering far lower than the BOK's target rate of 2-percent.
With the freeze,... South Korea's interest rate remains lower than the U.S. rates for the time being.
And if the U.S. Federal Reserve does hike its policy rate in its June meeting, as widely anticipated,... the gap between the two will widen even more to half a percentage point.

The bank of Korea's last rate hike came in November, it raised the base rate by a quarter-percentage point, the first rate hike in more than six years.

Won Jung-hwan, Arirang News.