Scotiabank Previews This Week's Policy Meetings at Thailand, South Korea Central Banks

10:37 AM EST, 02/23/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Thailand's central bank (BoT) is expected to keep its repurchase rate unchanged at 1.25% on Wednesday, said Scotiabank.

A small minority expects a reduction, noted the bank. Markets generally expect a hold.

When it cut by 25bps at its last meeting in December, the BoT indicated a dovish bias and a willingness to adjust further while downgrading expected gross domestic product growth. Since then, however, Q4 GDP surprised by tripling consensus expectations (1.9% quarter-over-quarter seasonally adjusted annual rate, while 0.6% was expected, stated Scotiabank.

Core consumer price index inflation remains low at 0.6% year over year,. The BoT has also been taking a gradual approach to easing since last April with alternating cuts and holds.

Additionally, markets expect the Bank of Korea (BoK) to keep its base rate unchanged at 2.5% on Thursday, according to Scotiabank.

At its last decision on Jan. 14, the BoK unanimously held with five out of six board members indicating what Governor Rhee Chang Yong labelled as "a high chance" that the policy rate will be held unchanged until at least the April 10 decision.

The BoK governor also said "it would be better to wait for more data and decide based on that." The January statement also struck out a reference in the prior November statement to the possibility of 'any further Base Rate cuts.'

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