Seoul: South Korea's central bank delivered a quarter-percentage-point interest rate hike Thursday, as widely expected, to tackle high inflation amid lingering Middle East uncertainties. The Bank of Korea (BOK) convened a Monetary Policy Board meeting and lifted the benchmark rate from 2.5% to 2.75%.

According to Qatar News Agency, this marked the first rate increase since January 2023, when the central bank hiked the rate by 0.25% to 3.5% as part of its policy normalization to jump-start the pandemic-hit economy.