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S.Korea c.bank holds rates, but next rise seen soon
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S.Korea c.bank holds rates, but next rise seen soon
Reuters - 2 hours 24 minutes ago
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* Keeps base rate at 2.25 pct after surprise raise last month
* Plays down concerns on slowing recovery in major economies
* Says price stability takes top priority for now
* Bond futures cut gains as rate rise looms in Sept
By Yoo Choonsik
SEOUL, Aug 12 - South Korea's central bank kept interest rates on hold on Thursday as expected, but flagged a rate rise soon by playing down a slowdown in the global economy and suggesting price stability is its top task.
Bank of Korea Governor Kim Choong-soo said a fast improvement in private-sector employment indicated Asia's fourth-largest economy had returned to pre-crisis levels or was growing beyond pre-crisis levels.
Domestic bond futures cut gains as traders, who had boosted holdings after the U.S. Federal Reserve's somber economic assessment earlier this week, priced in a slight increase in the risk of a rate rise as early as next month.
"His remarks today showed he is putting huge attention on consumer prices. I think he tried to signal that there is no reason for the central bank not to raise interest rates again soon," said Yum sang-hoon, a fixed-income analyst at SK Securities.
The central bank surprised markets last month by raising the policy interest rate <KROCRT=ECI> for the first time since the global crisis. It pushed up the rate by 25 basis points from record-low of 2 percent, joining several regional peers in starting to return policy to normal settings.
A central bank statement suggested it was shifting its policy emphasis towards controlling inflation over promoting growth.
"It is because in the future, price stability will be a very important policy task," Kim told reporters, when asked why the central bank had listed the need for "price stability" ahead of "economic growth" in one of its statements.
In July, it had said its policy would aim to help the economy sustain its sound growth on a foundation of price stability.
In a Reuters survey this week, 13 respondents had predicted the Bank of Korea would keep the policy rate on hold, while four had expected a 25 bps rate increase. [ID:nTOE67A03U]
September treasury bond futures <KTBc1> were trading up 0.15 point at 111.26 at 0416 GMT, below a session high of 111.41 set before Kim's news conference.
The U.S. central bank's decision this week to reinvest proceeds from maturing mortgage-linked debt and its somber economic views had raised investor concerns about a slowdown in the global recovery.
Kim said the U.S. economic situation needed to be monitored but thus far it hadn't changed the outlook for the Korean economy.
"We would like to keep watching the trends in the U.S. economy, but the situation is not serious enough for us to change our views because our exports and domestic demand are performing well," Kim said.
In the Reuters poll earlier this week, most analysts had predicted the Bank of Korea would raise interest rates again in September and for a third time before the end of the year, taking it to 2.75 percent.
Recent figures ranging from a business confidence indicator to exports and employment data have mostly pointed to a sustained recovery in South Korea's economy, despite mounting concerns about moderating growth in bigger economies.
Annual consumer inflation, at 2.6 percent in July, remains below the middle of the central bank's target range of 2 percent to 4 percent, but the central bank and the government expect price pressures to pick up later this year.
Despite tame inflation, the policy interest rate has stayed below the inflation rate for most of the period since early 2008, indicating that pressures for higher price growth could build as long as economic activity normalises. (Additional reporting by Cheon Jong-woo and Suh Kyungmin; Editing by Neil Fullick)
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