South Korea's Central Bank Holds Key Rate at 1.25% in August

South Korea's central bank held its policy rate in place for August on Thursday, extending its wait-and-see mode for a second straight month after sending the key rate to a record low level to bolster growth here. 
In a widely expected move, the monetary policy board of the Bank of Korea (BOK) voted to keep the key rate at 1.25% in August, state news agency (Yonhap) reported. 
In June, the central bank made a surprise rate cut, citing a need to support the economy. 
The country's exports have fallen every single month since the start of last year, while local spending, another major pillar of growth for Asia's fourth-largest economy, has also remained less than dull. In the January-June period, the country's consumer prices gained only 0.9%, far short of the central bank's 2% target for the 2016-2018 period. 
The monetary policy board noted some improvements in the domestic market but said the local economy will likely continue to face high uncertainties. 
"Exports have continued to decline, but domestic demand activities, including consumption, appear to have continued their, albeit, moderate improvements," it said in a released statement. 
"The board forecasts that the domestic economy will sustain its trend of modest growth going forward, owing chiefly to expansionary macroeconomic policies, but in view of economic conditions domestically and abroad, judges the uncertainties surrounding the growth path to be high," it added. 
Apparently recognizing worse-than-expected demand at home and abroad, the BOK slashed its growth outlook for the year to 2.7% in its latest quarterly revision announced last month. The latest outlook marked a 0.1 percentage point cut from 2.8% three months earlier.