[News Today] BOK KEEPS KEY RATE AT 3.5%

[LEAD]
The Bank of Korea has kept its policy rate unchanged at 3.5 percent.

The central bank's monetary policy board made the decision at its sixth meeting of this year held on Thursday.

The BOK has delivered a rate freeze for the 13th time in a row since February last year, the longest streak in its history.

On the other hand, the BOK lowered its outlook for gross domestic production growth for this year from 2.5 percent to 2.4 percent.

It also revised its prediction for inflation, saying that consumer prices will grow 2.5 percent this year. This is a 0.1-percentage-point drop from the initial forecast at 2.6 percent.