Interest rates cut in South Korea due to MERS outbreak

South Korean police officers protect themselves against MERS.
(Image credit: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

As new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) continue to pop up in South Korea, the country's central bank cut its policy rate Thursday by 25 basis points to a record low of 1.50 percent.

Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol said "we decided to cut rates today in a pre-emptive move to contain the economic fallout from MERS" on the same day 14 more cases were confirmed by authorities. Since a 68-year-old businessman brought MERS back to South Korea after a trip to Saudi Arabia, 122 cases have been reported and nine people have died, Reuters reports. All of the cases have been traced back to the original patient.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.