In a widely expected move, South Korea’s central bank stood pat on its 2 percent base rate Thursday as it gauges the policy impact of two rate cuts earlier this year.

The rate freeze came after the Bank of Korea lowered the policy rate by a quarter percentage point in August and October as part of efforts to bolster growth in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

Slowing growth momentum has been a major headache for policymakers as domestic demand has lagged and property transactions have failed to revive.

“In Korea, the committee judges that exports have sustained a favorable pattern, that indicators of domestic demand have been alternating between improvements and worsening, and that economic agents’ sentiment have been sluggish,” the policy board said in a statement.

The committee also noted overseas uncertainties such as “the prolongation of economic sluggishness in the euro area” and “weakening of economic growth in some emerging market countries.”

In a separate press release, the BOK said while the Korean economy is expected to gradually improve, delays in the recovery of consumption and investment sentiment and increase in exchange rate volatility following policy shifts in major countries may work as destabilizing factors. (Yonhap)