BOK Cuts Rate for 1st Time Since May 2013 to Boost Growth

South Korea’s central bank cut its interest rate for the first time in more than a year, risking inflaming record household debt as it backs government efforts to spur Asia’s fourth-biggest economy.

Governor Lee Ju Yeol and his board lowered the seven-day repurchase rate to 2.25 percent from 2.5 percent, the Bank of Korea said in a statement in Seoul today. Fourteen of 18 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News forecast the move, with the rest seeing no change.