Despite Fall in Korean Won's Value against US Dollars
Financial institutions bid for a total of US$2,119 million in the Bank of Korea’s fourth competitive bid for Korea-U.S. currency swap-based foreign currency lending on April 21. The amount is approximately half of the supply limit of US$4 billion.
The competitive bid was conducted for commercial banks, Korea Development Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea and the Export-Import Bank of Korea. Lending with maturity of six days constituted one-eighth of the supply limit and lending with maturity of 84 days constituted the rest. The final bid amounts were zero and US$2,119 million, respectively.
A total of US$8.72 billion, US$4,415 million and US$2,025 million were successfully bid in the first to third bids, respectively. The final bid amount has been about 50 percent of the supply limit in each of the four bids.
In the meantime, the won-dollar exchange rate rose 9.2 won per U.S. dollar to close at 1,229.7 won on April 21. The opening exchange rate was 1,222 won, up 1.5 won from the previous day, and the rate soared after news about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s surgery.
The South Korean government is planning to continue to supply foreign currency liquidity to the market. The Ministry of Economy and Finance remarked that the government was working on additional measures to that end.