Foreign investment banks showed mixed views on the future direction of South Korea’s key interest rate, a report said Thursday, with the country’s central bank facing growing pressure on a rate cut.

Earlier this month, the monetary policy committee of the Bank of Korea decided to keep the base rate unchanged at 2.5 percent for a 14th straight month.

The report released by the Korea Center for International Finance showed that BNP Paribas projected the BOK is unlikely to cut the rate as Asia’s fourth-largest economy is moving on a modest recovery track despite the central bank’s downward growth revisions.

The BOK recently trimmed its growth forecast for the South Korean economy to 3.8 percent for this year and 4 percent in 2015, citing fallouts from the mid-April Sewol ferry disaster that sapped domestic demand and pummeled sentiment.

The forecasts are lower than an earlier projection of 4 percent and 4.2 percent. (Yonhap)