South Korea's central bank on Thursday lowered its 2018 growth forecast for the economy by 0.1 percentage point to 2.9 percent.

The downward revision came after the Bank of Korea (BOK) kept its benchmark interest rate at 1.5 percent for eight straight months.

Despite the rate freeze, one of eight monetary policy board members claimed a 25-basis-point rate hike, heralding a rate increase later this year.

The BOK set its outlook for 2018 real gross domestic product (GDP) at 2.9 percent, down 0.1 percentage point from the figure forecast three months earlier.

The central bank expected the South Korean economy to grow 2.8 percent in 2019.