South Korea's base rate stood at 3% ahead of the next rate-setting meeting on Nov. 26, according to October data from the Bank of Korea's Economic Statistics System.
The central bank held the rate on Oct. 22 after raising it at its two previous meetings. The October decision left the rate half a percentage point above the level set in May.
Annual consumer price inflation eased to 2.8% in October from 2.9% in September, Statistics Korea said in data available through the central bank's statistics system. That was a decline of 0.1 percentage point.
The October figure measures the change in consumer prices from the same month a year earlier. Prices continued to rise, although the annual increase was smaller than in September.
The central bank raised the base rate by 25 basis points to 3% on Aug. 27. That followed a 25-basis-point increase to 2.75% on July 16.
Before those increases, the central bank held the rate at 2.5% on May 28. The July and August increases together added 50 basis points, equivalent to half a percentage point.
The sequence put the rate at 2.5% in May, 2.75% in July and 3% in August. October's hold kept the August level in place ahead of the November meeting.
The US federal funds target range stood at 3.75% to 4% as of Nov. 2. Its upper bound was 1 percentage point above the Korean base rate.
That comparison uses the top of the US range. The gap describes the difference between the two policy settings, rather than a change in either country's interest rate.
In short-term markets, the 91-day monetary stabilisation bond rate, a yield on central bank debt, was quoted at 3.185% on Nov. 3. The quoted spread above the base rate was 19 basis points.
The Korea Overnight Financing Repo rate, an overnight borrowing benchmark, stood at 2.995%. That placed the overnight rate just below the base rate, while the 91-day yield stood above it.
A market-implied calculation covering the full 91-day period assigned a 100% probability to a 25-basis-point increase, averaged across one meeting. It assigned 0% to a hold and 0% to a 25-basis-point cut.
Those probabilities describe market-implied pricing across the 91-day window. They are not a forecast of the Monetary Policy Board's Nov. 26 decision.
