Won-Dollar Exchange Rate Holds Steady

Exchange rate is holding steady as the scale of fluctuation of won-dollar exchange rate get narrowed.

According to the `Foreign Exchange Market Trend in the 1st Quarter, ` which the Bank of Korea announced on the 12th, the range of fluctuation in the average daily won-dollar exchange narrowed to 2.5 won from 3.7 won in the previous quarter by 32.4 percent (1.2 won). The range by monthly was 1.9 won in February and 1.7 won in March.

The range of daily fluctuation in won-dollar exchange (gap between highest and lowest) was 7.1 won in January, 4.7 won in February, and 3.8 won in March with narrowing trend.

Doh Yong-Ho acting manager of Foreign Exchange Market Team in the Bank of Korea said, “the narrowed range of fluctuation in exchange rate means that the worries and uncertainty over Korean economy are getting diminished. ”

Meanwhile, the exchange rate of won and yen against dollar moved almost the same direction with the correlation coefficient of won and yen to U.S. dollar at 0.97 in last December, but the synchronization was weakened with the correlation coefficient marking 0.65 to 0.79 in the first quarter.

Sang-Chul Kim sckim007@donga.com