Som det første asiatiske land, der hæver renten, har Sydkoreas nationalbank hævet den ledende rente med 25 basispoint til 0,75 pct. For 15 måneder siden blev renten sat ned for at stimulere økonomien under coronakrisen. Årsagen til en rentenormalisering er, at eksporten går godt fremad, og at vaccinationerne ruller ud i højt tempo. Sydkorea er et af de lande, der har haft mest check på coronasmitten med relativt få dødsfald og uden lockdown. Økonomien brød sammen med 0,9 pct. sidste år, og væksten ventes i år at blive på 4 pct.
Uddrag fra Fidelity/Dow Jones:
Bank of Korea Raises Rate After 15 Months at Record Low
South Korea’s central bank raised its base interest rate on Thursday after 15 months of keeping it at a record low, signaling it would further dial back its easy-money policy amid an economic recovery.
The rate increase makes the Bank of Korea the first major central bank in Asia to start withdrawing stimulus measures that were put in place because of the pandemic.
The bank increased the benchmark seven-day repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 0.75% from its historically low 0.50% that had been in place since May 2020.
BOK Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said the decision wasn’t unanimous, with one dissenting board member calling for holding the rate steady. He said he expects robust exports and progress in the country’s vaccine rollout to withstand the challenge posed by the resurgence in new Covid-19 cases.
The bank’s policy board said in a statement that it “will gradually adjust the degree of monetary policy accommodation as the Korean economy is expected to continue its sound growth” amid higher inflationary pressure.
The bank’s decision to scale back policy support was also viewed as aiming to curb surging household debt and cool red-hot property prices in the country even if a resurgence in Covid-19 cases is a challenge to economic recovery.
Of the 34 economists and market analysts polled by The Wall Street Journal ahead of the decision, 18 had forecast a rate increase in August, while 16 had expected the bank to delay it until October or November.
The bank sees the South Korean economy still recovering from the pandemic, on brisk exports and progress in vaccine rollouts.
The central bank also said Thursday that it expects the country’s gross domestic product to expand 4.0% this year, unchanged from its upgraded outlook in May. It also expects inflation to average 2.1%, faster than its earlier estimate of 1.8% for 2021.
The pandemic-hit South Korean economy shrank 0.9% in 2020.
Exports in July rose almost 30% on year to a monthly record in value terms, with inflation remaining above the central bank’s 2% annual target for a fourth straight month.
The country is stepping up fiscal stimulus, drawing up an expansionary 2022 national budget after two extra coronavirus-relief government spending packages.
