SEOUL, April 12 Reuters South Korea39;s central bank said on Friday greater uncertainty on the inflation outlook and the strength of exports argued against a near term push to cut interest rates after the bank left the policy rate steady at a 15year high.

To give a sixmonth ahead outlook or so, all of the board members including myself deem it39;s difficult to make a call on the possibility of a rate cut for the second half, Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Changyong said in a postpolicy news conference after keeping its key rate at 3.50, as expected by all 39 analysts polled by Reuters.

The Bank of Korea BOK has argued it needs to see more progress on prices to gain confidence that they are moving towards the bank39;s 2 target before lowering borrowing costs.

While Rhee flagged it might be difficult to reduce rates this year, there was a crucial change in the central bank39;s policy statement, suggesting a cut was still possible.

The BOK said it will keep its restrictive monetary policy stance for a sufficient period of time, a shift from its statement in February, when it said restrictive policy would be maintained for a sufficiently long period of time.

South Korea39;s policysensitive threeyear treasury bond yield pared some losses during Rhee39;s news conference, after falling by as much as 7.3 basis points to 3.393 on the policy statement.

There has been a degree of ambiguity in Rhee39;s communication on Friday, said Cho Yonggu, an analyst at Shinyoung…