News

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: An employee walks at an empty park near a financial district amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Seoul, South Korea, September 10, 2020. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s top economic and financial officials agreed at a rare meeting on Thursday to strengthen coordinated efforts to keep the markets stable, while affirming containing inflation was the top policy goal.

Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho told reporters emergency measures could include bond buy-backs, while Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang-yong said a big-step rate increase could be considered after reviewing incoming data.

“Should there be any excessive movements in the bond market, (the authorities) will undertake measures such as emergency bond buy-backs at an appropriate time,” said Choo, adding the authorities will continue to closely monitor the foreign exchange market in order to prevent any excessive movements.

When asked about a possibility of ‘big step’ rate increase, Rhee said “there are three to four weeks left until the next rate decision meeting, so it is a matter to decide after seeing how markets move until then.”

The Bank of Korea is not considering holding any emergency policy review meeting for now, Rhee said.