SEOUL, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's central bank on Thursday lowered its 2019 growth outlook for the economy by 0.1 percentage point to 2.6 percent.

The Bank of Korea (BOK)'s growth forecast for the real gross domestic product (GDP), adjusted for inflation, for this year was revised down to 2.6 percent from 2.7 percent estimated three months earlier.

The downward revision was in line with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s outlook and within the government's growth forecast of 2.6-2.7 percent.

The BOK cut this year's headline inflation outlook to 1.4 percent from 1.7 percent estimated three months ago.

The lowered outlook came after the BOK froze its benchmark interest rate at 1.75 percent. The target rate was hiked to the current level by 25 basis points in November last year.