SEOUL, April 13 (Reuters) – The Bank of Korea’s governor nominee said it would be necessary to respond properly if the won fell excessively, in written remarks he submitted on Monday to parliament ahead of a parliamentary confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
“Although dollar-won exchange rates recently fell slightly to the 1,480 level, their increases since the Middle East war had been bigger than other currencies and uncertainty is still high, so we will closely monitor foreign exchange market conditions,” Shin Hyun-song said.
On Monday, the won weakened as much as 1.1% to 1,499.7 per dollar, after talks nL1N40U07M between the U.S. and Iran over the weekend failed to reach a deal to end the war.
Shin said it was not necessary to worry about the level of dollar-won rates itself, given stable liquidity conditions, while he declined to answer a lawmaker’s question on the outlook for exchange rates.
On a separate question regarding monetary policy, Shin said increased inflation pressure from the Middle East conflict would be considered most in future policy decisions, according to a report by the Yonhap News Agency.
Meanwhile, downward pressure on growth is somewhat being mitigated by robust semiconductor exports nL1N40K001 and an extra budget nL1N40T0FI, Shin said.
The central bank last week kept its policy interest rate nL1N40S00Q steady and warned of a highly uncertain path, as it flagged a downgrade in its growth forecasts and higher inflation projections.
(Reporting by Jihoon LeeEditing by Ed Davies)
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