Photo : YONHAP News
The head of the Bank of Korea’s International Department says the bank is keeping a close eye on the foreign exchange market and will act if serious foreign currency gaps occur.
Yoon Kyoung-soo made the remark Tuesday during a news conference in Seoul, noting that the Korean won has been depreciating at a fast rate.
The Korea won traded at one-thousand-530-point-one per dollar as of 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, up 14-point-four won from Monday.
The exchange rate had surged to as high as one-thousand-536-point-nine during midday trading, marking its highest level in 17 years since March 10, 2009, during the global financial crisis.
Yoon cited the outflow of foreign equity capital as the biggest reason behind the high won-dollar exchange rate.
Regarding BOK governor nominee Sin Hyun-song’s assessment that there are no major concerns concerning the won-dollar rate, Yoon said Sin was apparently stressing that high exchange rates do not necessarily translate to a crisis situation.
The central bank and other foreign exchange authorities also announced on Tuesday that they sold a net total of 22-point-46 billion U.S. dollars in the foreign exchange market during the fourth quarter of last year in a bid to stabilize the market.
The figure marks the largest net sale on record for a single quarter.