‘Bank of Korea must raise rate’

SEOUL, Aug 28 (Reuters): The Bank of Korea (BOK) must keep raising interest rates until the rate of inflation is in decline, but the central bank likely could not halt its tightening before the US Federal Reserve, Governor Rhee Chang-yong said on Saturday.
In an interview with Reuters, Rhee also said South Korea's central bank is ready to take steps, including intervention to stabilize the won against the dollar, if needed, should the bank determine speculative forces are causing the currency's fall.
Rhee's comments, on the sidelines of the Jackson Hole conference of central bankers in the US state of Wyoming, dampened speculation that the BOK might be one of the first big central banks to ease off in the global battle against the steepest inflation in decades.
Asia's fourth-largest economy has been in the vanguard of global tightening. The BOK was among the first central banks to abandon pandemic-era monetary stimulus.