SEOUL, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's central bank kept its benchmark interest rate at 1.5 percent on Thursday, after raising it by a quarter percentage point in late November.

At the first rate-setting meeting in 2018, Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Lee Ju-yeol and six other policy board members decided to put the seven-day repurchase rate on hold at 1.5 percent.

It was in line with market expectations. According to a Korea Financial Investment Association (KFIA) survey of 100 fixed-income experts, 99 percent predicted the rate freeze.

The experts predicted the BOK will wait and see after the central bank raised the benchmark rate by 25 basis points in late November, the first rate increase in almost six and a half years.