SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s finance minister said the current level of the won, nearly 1,400 per dollar, should be considered a “new normal”, Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday, although the finance ministry later denied the minister had made this comment.
Choi Sang-mok, who is also Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, said that “the current level of 1,400 should be seen as slightly different from the 1,400 in the past,” the report said.
Choi added that economic conditions in South Korea do not allow raising interest rates to defend the local currency, during a meeting with reporters who accompanied him on a trip to New York, Yonhap reported.
The won has weakened almost 5% against the dollar this month, reaching its lowest level since late July at 1,385.1 earlier on Wednesday. The psychological threshold of 1,400 was last reached in mid-April.
Shortly after Yonhap’s report, the Ministry of Finance said in a text message: “Vice Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok did not say that the exchange rate of 1,400 won per dollar was the new standard during a meeting with Manhattan correspondents in New York on the 22nd . .”
About a half-dozen news outlets reported the comments, but some, including Yonhap, later deleted their articles without explanation.
