BOK’s Lee: Worst seems to be over for the economy

Dhwani Mehta FXStreet

The worst seems to be over for the Korean economy, the Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Lee Ju-yeol said at the post-monetary policy press conference on Thursday.

Additional comments

Thursday's rate decision was unanimous.

Political moves to add jobs to BOK mandate needs in-depth discussion.

Recent gains in KRW bigger than gains in other major currencies.

Herd-like behaviour added to recent volatilities in KRW.

Closely monitoring KRW.

Will act to stabilize fx market if needed.

Fast gains in KRW not desirable.

Per day exports for the past two months shows exports volume has recovered to pre-pandemic level.

Accelerating household debt growth, a concern.

Not a time to discuss normalizing of monetary policies.

Market reaction

USD/KRW whipsawed on the BOK Governor Lee’s commentary, currently trading at 1,106.75, flat on the day.

The spot dropped to fresh six-day lows of 1,104.60 in a knee-jerk reaction to his opening remarks but reverted quickly to the familiar trading range around 1,106.50.

BOK leaves benchmark rate unchanged at 0.50%, USD/KRW bounces

Author

Dhwani Mehta

FXStreet

Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.

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