Lates News

Hwang Kunil, a voting member of the Bank of Korea's monetary policy board, warned that the recent pace of won fluctuations warrants close attention, signaling that despite the export-dependent economy benefiting from surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, he remains cautious about exchange rate movements. He said that with regard to the exchange rate, one must focus on its volatility and speed of change rather than specific levels. The recent pace of fluctuations has been slightly faster than expected, and volatility is being closely monitored. That said, after adjusting for the large current account surplus and foreign investor rebalancing, downward pressure on the exchange rate still persists." Hwang Kunil, who previously served as Vice Minister of South Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance and as a World Bank executive director, said the won's recent appreciation is due to a surge in dollar inflows driven by global AI infrastructure buildout, which has boosted demand for specialty memory chips from South Korea's top chipmakers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics.