BOK forecasts S Korea's economic growth at 3pc in 2018

The Bank of Korea (BOK), the central bank of South Korea, has forecasted 3.0 per cent economic growth for the country.

The BOK on Thursday forecasted that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) would grow 3.0 per cent in 2018, reports Xinhua.

BOK Governor Lee Ju-yeol told a press conference after the rate-setting meeting that the BOK's growth outlook for this year was unchanged from the one estimated three months earlier.

In 2017, the GDP of the fourth largest economic country of the Asia rose 3.1 per cent.

It was identical to the growth forecasts offered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Local economic think tanks predicted lower figures than the BOK forecast.

The state-run Korea Development Institute (KDI) setting its outlook at 2.9 per cent, and the private Hyundai Research Institute (HRI) and LG Economic Research Institute (LGERI) at 2.8 per cent.

The BOK held a regular rate-setting meeting, leaving the benchmark rate unchanged at 1.5 per cent.

The bank raised the rate in November last year to the current level from an all-time low of 1.25 per cent, the first rate hike in almost six and a half years.

The bank's outlook for this year's consumer price inflation was downgraded to 1.6 per cent, marking the third straight downward revision since July last year.

Consumer prices rose 1.0 per cent in January from a year earlier, posting the lowest gain in 17 months. It rebounded to 1.4 per cent in February and 1.3 per cent in March each, but it stayed below the BOK's inflation target of 2.0 per cent.