SEOUL (Reuters) – A Bank of Korea policy board member said on Tuesday she believes the South Korean economy would be able to endure interest-rate differences with the United States to some extent.
“I think capital flows won’t change sensitively even if the (rate) differences widen a little bit,” Suh Young-kyung said, when asked at a scheduled event what would happen if rate differences widened further with the United States.
She also said South Korea’s monetary policy would be in a tightening mode even if the central bank keeps the policy interest rate unchanged in the coming months.
The Bank of Korea last raised its policy interest rate by 25 basis points on Jan. 13 and next meets on Feb. 23. The bank has raised the rate by 325 basis points in 10 steps since late 2021.
(Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Writing by Choonsik Yoo; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Tom Hogue)
