[Courtesy of Bank of Korea ]
South Korea's central bank revised down this year's growth outlook for Asia's fourth-largest economy to 2.5 percent from 2.8 percent and froze its key interest rate.
Weak domestic demand is the main cause of South Korea's slow economic recovery, the Bank of Korea said, lowering its projection of this year's GDP growth. The economy grew 3.3 percent in 2014, 2.6 percent in 2015 and an estimated 2.7 percent last year.
The bank kept its policy rate for January unchanged at an all-time low of 1.25 percent for the seventh straight month, citing financial stability, snowballing household debt, and a possible US rate hike.
South Korea's household debt stood at a record high of 1,295.8 trillion won (1.07 trillion US dollars) at the end of September.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
