All BOK policymakers vote for Oct. emergency rate cut: minutes

SEOUL, Dec. 9 (Yonhap) -- Policymakers at the Bank of Korea (BOK) agreed unanimously on an emergency interest rate cut in late October to head off a drastic economic slowdown, according to its minutes released Tuesday.

At a hurriedly-called meeting on Oct. 27, the seven members of the central bank's
Monetary Policy Committee decided to slash the benchmark seven-day repo rate by a
record 0.75 percentage point to 4.25 percent.
"It is inevitable for the BOK to cut the rate by 0.75 percentage point to ease
financial jitters and prevent the impact of a global financial meltdown from
spilling over into the real economy," one policymaker was quoted as saying during
the meeting.
The BOK joined a round of rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central
banks, designed to minimize the impact of the global financial rout.
Since early October, the BOK has trimmed the rate by a combined 1.25 percentage
points to 4 percent in a bid to keep global financial turmoil from sharply
slowing the economy.
According to the minutes, one member of the BOK policy board even proposed a full
percentage-point rate reduction, saying the nation's economic conditions required
more drastic steps.
The South Korean economy grew 0.5 percent in the third quarter from three months
earlier, the slowest growth in four years, as exports fell amid sluggish domestic
demand.
Asia's fourth-largest economy is likely to lose steam down the road as the global
recession has begun to cascade into emerging markets like China, the main
destination for South Korean exports.
Meanwhile, South Korea's consumer prices grew 4.5 percent on-year in November,
decelerating from a 4.8 percent advance in October as oil and raw material prices
declined. The next rate review is slated for Thursday.
sooyeon@yna.co.kr
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