BoK senior deputy governor Kwon says growth is improving more than expected, inflation is exceeding target and financial stability risks also remain

• Cautious and flexible policy decisions are needed due to FX volatility and geopolitical risks.

Remarks of this kind from a central bank deputy governor typically sit between routine jawboning and genuine guidance; the pattern in past tightening-lean episodes is that pairing above-target inflation with improving growth, while withholding any easing signal, has tended to steepen the short end of the domestic curve and firm the currency, particularly where FX volatility is cited as a constraint. The reference to FX volatility and financial stability alongside inflation is the familiar framing used when a bank wants to lean against won weakness without committing to action, and historically such caution-and-flexibility language has preceded holds rather than hikes unless the currency slide accelerates. The distinction worth drawing is between a growth-and-inflation signal (hawkish for the policy path) and a stability caveat (a reason to move slowly); BoK communications have often balanced the two in exactly this way before standing pat. The follow-ons that have mattered in comparable episodes are the next board meeting's vote split and any shift in the governor's tone, plus whether FX intervention rhetoric escalates from the finance ministry side. As a single official's framing rather than a board decision, the signal is directional rather than binding.