January 19, 2000 
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| January 19, 2000 | atimes.com | |
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| The Koreas Seoul poised to intervene in forex market SEOUL - The South Korean government is poised to intervene in the foreign exchange market to stem the won's sharp rise against the dollar after the greenback fell to its lowest level since November 27, 1997. ''The sharp plunge is undesirable, and all means will be mobilized to deal with the trend,'' a highly-placed Finance and Economy Ministry source said on Tuesday. The dollar fell to intraday-low of 1,116 won on Monday, but the threat of intervention appeared to have reversed the won's rise in Tuesday's trade. Finance and Economy Minister Lee Hun-jai also told reporters that small-scale adjustments, or ''smoothing operations'', are a reasonable way to cope with a sharp fluctuation of foreign exchange rates. The source said the won's latest rise is due mainly from the inflow of foreign stock funds, although there has not been a large amount of foreign direct investment. ''This kind of disparity could deal a serious blow to our economy,'' he said. Meanwhile, there has been almost no trade surplus or deficit so far this month as exports and imports have both reached $11.6 billion. This marks the first time there has been no trade surplus since November 1997. (Asia Pulse/Yonhap) | |||||||||
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