{"id":664527,"date":"2026-10-25T02:20:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T02:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/664527\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T02:20:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T02:20:48","slug":"bok-chief-signals-hawkish-stance-amid-outlook-for-higher-growth-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/664527\/","title":{"rendered":"BOK chief signals hawkish stance amid outlook for higher growth, rates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/8c638a55-f27c-4239-a1d9-14221bdee1da.jpg\" style=\"height: auto; aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1280; width: 100%\" alt=\"Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Shin Hyun-song, right, speaks during a parliamentary audit at the National Assembly in Seoul, Friday. Yonhap\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Shin Hyun-song, right, speaks during a parliamentary audit at the National Assembly in Seoul, Friday. Yonhap<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Shin Hyun-song said Friday the central bank will adjust its monetary policy to a future environment of higher economic growth and interest rates, signaling it will maintain a hawkish stance for some time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">In response to a question from Rep. Kim Tae-nyeon of the ruling Democratic Party during a parliamentary audit at the National Assembly, Shin agreed with the assessment that a return to the era of ultra-low interest rates would be difficult.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">&#8220;We will implement policies effectively in preparation for the prospect of a future environment characterized by high growth and high interest rates,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">The central bank has adopted a more hawkish stance in recent months amid rising inflation and solid economic growth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">It raised the benchmark interest rate to 3 percent in July and August, marking the first back-to-back rate hikes since January 2023. The January 2023 hike was the seventh consecutive increase in a tightening cycle that began in April 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">Over the 3 1\/2-year period, the rate was gradually lowered to 2.5 percent from 3.5 percent before the latest round of hikes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">At its latest rate-setting meeting Thursday, the BOK held the rate steady but emphasized that the decision represented a pause in its tightening cycle rather than a shift away from its hawkish stance. It cited inflationary pressures from rising oil prices, renewed uncertainty in the Middle East and a stronger-than-expected economic recovery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">Shin also said the Korean economy is likely to grow by more than 3 percent this year and next year, driven by strong exports related to artificial intelligence (AI).<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">&#8220;I cannot say the exact numbers (for this year&#8217;s growth forecast),&#8221; he said, noting that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) had revised its 2026 growth forecast for Korea to 3.7 percent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">The BOK raised its 2026 growth forecast to 3.3 percent from 2.6 percent in August and is expected to revise it upward again at its next meeting in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Shin Hyun-song, right, speaks during a parliamentary audit at the National Assembly in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":["post-664527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}