South Korea’s central bank cuts rates in a bid to boost the economy
Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s central bank cut its policy rate for the first time in more than four years as pressure to revive a sluggish economy outweighed concerns about the country’s level of household debt. The Bank of Korea lowered its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 3.25% following a meeting of its monetary policy committee on Friday, in its first move to lower borrowing costs since May 2020, when the economy was weathering the COVID-19 pandemic. The bank raised the rate by a quarter percentage point in August 2021 over concerns about inflation and soaring household debt, driven in part by skyrocketing house prices, and then froze rates for over three years.