Lee Chang-yong, governor of the Bank of Korea, stated at a press briefing held right after the Monetary Policy Committee on the 28th that "Interest rates cannot control housing prices." He noted that there are limitations to stabilizing the housing market with monetary policy, and that household debt and factors causing instability in housing prices are still significant.
The governor said, "Freezing the interest rate means that we will not encourage expectations of rising housing prices by supplying excess liquidity."
He added, "It is still difficult to be confident that household debt has stabilized," and said, "In our country, over 50% of the population lives in the metropolitan area, so real estate prices have a significant impact on the consumer price index."
On that day, the Monetary Policy Committee decided to keep the benchmark interest rate at 2.50% per year. This marks a continuation of the policy to maintain interest rates following the decision from May. The Bank of Korea alternated between reducing the rate by 0.25 percentage points in October and November last year, and keeping the rate unchanged (January, April, July) and reducing it (February, May) this year.