{"id":134145,"date":"2026-08-27T12:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T12:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/134145\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T12:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T12:43:09","slug":"strong-signal-south-korea-raises-rates-again-to-fight-inflation-rising-home-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/134145\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Strong signal\u2019: South Korea raises rates again to fight inflation, rising home prices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/south-korea?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">South Korea<\/a>\u2019s central bank has raised interest rates for a second straight month, with analysts saying its <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/week-asia\/economics\/article\/3357950\/why-south-koreas-ai-chip-boom-serious-concern-its-economy?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">semiconductor boom<\/a> has given policymakers room to confront inflation, a weak won and rising home prices, but at the cost of a deeper squeeze on indebted households and small businesses.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The Bank of Korea (BOK) lifted its benchmark rate by 0.25 percentage point to 3.0 per cent on Thursday, a month after an identical increase took it to 2.75 per cent in July.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The latest move brought the rate to its highest level since February 2025 and signalled a central bank willing to accept some damage to domestic demand to contain broader financial risks.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Households with housing-related loans, small businesses and other borrowers are expected to feel the pressure most acutely. But with semiconductor exports and investment driving stronger-than-expected growth, economists said the BOK had decided the greater danger lay in moving too slowly.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The Monetary Policy Board made that priority clear in its statement, saying: \u201cIt is important to prevent inflationary pressures from becoming widespread through pre-emptive action, and it is also necessary to continue paying attention to financial stability risks.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThe board will decide the timing and pace of further increases in the Base Rate while assessing trends in inflation and the domestic economy, as well as financial stability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Shin Hyun-song, governor of the Bank of Korea, speaks during a press conference after a monetary policy meeting at the central bank\u2019s headquarters in Seoul on Thursday. Photo: Yonhap \/ AFP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/cb31f3aa-9c37-43fa-b66e-593cf05ce838_0287d4bf.jpg\" title=\"Shin Hyun-song, governor of the Bank of Korea, speaks during a press conference after a monetary policy meeting at the central bank\u2019s headquarters in Seoul on Thursday. Photo: Yonhap \/ AFP\"\/>Shin Hyun-song, governor of the Bank of Korea, speaks during a press conference after a monetary policy meeting at the central bank\u2019s headquarters in Seoul on Thursday. Photo: Yonhap \/ AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Korea\u2019s central bank has raised interest rates for a second straight month, with analysts saying its semiconductor&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[845,846,44452,4317,3913,34548,14603,31,2397,642,1616,9976,68262,33,10854,14602],"class_list":["post-134145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-korea","tag-bank-of-korea","tag-bok","tag-housing-prices","tag-inflation","tag-interest-rates","tag-kim-gwang-suk","tag-kim-sung-hyun","tag-korea","tag-monetary-policy-board","tag-semiconductor","tag-shin-hyun-song","tag-sogang-university","tag-song-heon-jae","tag-south-korea","tag-sungkyunkwan-university","tag-university-of-seoul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}