A surge in housing prices in recent months has put Korea's central bank under the spotlight, and has raised speculation that it might hike interest rates to slow any speculative bubble. Between April and August, housing prices climbed for five consecutive months, according to data collected by Kookmin Bank.
Property prices have bounced back from a slump in the immediate wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse in September 2008, and Tim Condon, chief Asia economist at ING, wrote in a September 28 report: "we think that the Bank of Korea (BOK) views increases of more than 1% ...