Bank of Korea minutes suggest another interest rate cut imminent

Reuters

Wed, May 7, 2025, 12:25 AM 1 min read

SEOUL (Reuters) -Most of the Bank of Korea's committee members assessed headwinds to South Korea's system were increasing faster than expected, a origin that would warrant much involvement complaint cuts, minutes from past month's gathering showed connected Wednesday.

"With economical maturation this twelvemonth expected to autumn abbreviated of erstwhile forecasts owed to the economical slowdown, the request for preemptive involvement complaint cuts is growing," 1 of the 7 committee members said, according to the minutes from the bank's April 17 complaint review.

The BOK's seven-member committee connected April 17 held the benchmark involvement complaint astatine 2.75% arsenic expected astatine its monetary argumentation reappraisal and signaled it would chopped rates successful May to header with "significant" risks to the system from U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariff policy.

A bulk of economists surveyed by Reuters expect the BOK to little the benchmark involvement complaint to 2.25% by the extremity of the 3rd 4th of this twelvemonth arsenic shifting U.S. tariff argumentation fuels fears of a planetary recession and threatens to sharply curtail exports retired of Asia's fourth-largest economy.

The BOK adjacent reviews argumentation involvement rates connected May 29.

(Reporting by Cynthia KimEditing by Ed Davies)