The BOK’s Monetary Policy Board hiked its benchmark interest rate to 3.0% from 2.5% – its fifth straight hike since April.

South Korea’s consumer price index rose 5.6% in September from a year earlier, after reaching a 24-year high of 6.3% in July. The energy-poor country imports most of its crude oil and natural gas from the Middle East, the US and other countries.

The Korean won has also dropped sharply against the US dollar, losing 20.7% of its value so far this year. The won lost 1.6% against the greenback on Tuesday, closing at 1,435.20 won per dollar.

Economists forecast that the central bank will raise the rate a few more times through early next year to control inflation and defend the value of its currency.

“With the expected follow-up 25 bp hikes in November, January and February 2023, the BOKs policy rate should reach a terminal rate of 3.75%,” Park Seok-gil, an economist at JPMorgan Chase Bank, wrote in a note last month.