South Korea BoK raised rate in 4-1 vote in March

SEOUL: South Korea's central bank policy board raised interest rates in a 4-1 vote at its March meeting as most members saw inflation remaining high for the time being, meeting minutes released on Tuesday showed.

"The (annual rate of) inflation stayed above 4 percent for two consecutive months and could soon rise above 5 percent," the document quoted one member as saying during the March 10 meeting.

The document did not name individual speakers, although it cited Kang Myung-hun, widely known to be a dove, as voting against raising the base rate to 3.0 percent from 2.75 percent.