South Korea freezes interest rates at record low after Fed's rate hike

Seoul, Dec 15 : South Korea's central bank on Thursday froze interest rates at a record low to see the effect from the US Federal Reserve's first rate hike in a year.

Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Lee Ju-yeol and six other policy board members decided to keep the benchmark seven-day repurchase rate on hold at an all-time low of 1.25 per cent, Xinhua news agency reported.

The bank refrained from altering the rate for six months in a row amid mixed signals facing the Asia's No. 4 economy.

The rate freeze came hours after the Fed raised its key rate by a quarter percentage point to a range of 0.5 per cent to 0.75 per cent, the first increase since last December.