[Anchor]
The Bank of Korea will decide on whether to freeze the benchmark interest rate today (22nd).
Concerns about inflation have eased somewhat, but with housing prices surging in the Seoul metropolitan area, it is expected that the current interest rate of 3.5% will be maintained.
This is reporter Lee Hyeong-won.
[Reporter]
There is no disagreement that the benchmark interest rate will be frozen for the 13th consecutive time.
Although inflation has been maintaining stability in the 2% range for the past few months,
the burden of rising housing prices is preventing a rate cut.
Last month, Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol also openly expressed concerns about this issue.
[Lee Ju-yeol / Bank of Korea Governor (11th of last month):
(The pace of housing price increases in the Seoul metropolitan area) has been faster than expected from the end of May to June and July. We are closely monitoring this… We all agree on not making policy mistakes that trigger housing price increases.]
In fact, last month witnessed the largest increase in Seoul housing prices in 4 years and 7 months.
Household loans continue to rise amid surging housing prices, increasing by over 4 trillion won just this month.
[Jo Yeong-moo / Research Fellow, LG Economic Research Institute:
The premise for a rate cut in October by the Bank of Korea would be a rate cut in the U.S. (in September), a slowdown in the growth of household debt, and easing concerns about rising real estate prices… Various conditions such as these need to be met for a rate cut to happen a bit early in October…]
The growth rate forecast to be announced together will hold weight at 2.5%.
Although the growth rate in the second quarter was negative,
consideration was given to the continued strong export performance, centered on semiconductors.
[Lee Jeong-hwan / Professor, Hanyang University School of Economics and Finance:
There is still a lot of uncertainty about how the economic trend will unfold in the second half of the year… However, considering that indicators showing strong exports continue to emerge, the growth rate itself may be maintained.]
However, the slowdown in private consumption could be seen as a variable that could lower the growth forecast.
This is YTN reporter Lee Hyeong-won.
Video editing: Han Soomin
Graphics: Ji Gyeong-yoon
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