SEOUL: The South Korean won traded at a 20-month low against the U.S. dollar Wednesday afternoon, falling for a third consecutive day, dealers said.
The local currency was quoted at 1,128.70 per dollar as of 1:30 p.m., down 6.10 won from the previous session’s end.
The Japanese currency continued to fall against the dollar as traders bet that the U.S. Federal Reserve would raise interest rates sooner than thought and weak growth data for the fourth-quarter stoked speculation that the Japanese central bank may take additional monetary easing.
South Korea’s won usually tends to move in lockstep with the yen as the two countries directly compete in overseas markets over products ranging from autos to smartphones.
“The won-dollar rate may rise further as the rate breached psychologically resistant levels,” said Jun Seung-ji, an analyst at Samsung Futures Co.
The Bank of Korea, the country’s central bank, is scheduled to hold its monthly monetary policy meeting Thursday where it is widely expected to hold its base rate at a record low of 2 percent.
But the central bank is coming under growing calls to slash the base rate, which will put further downward pressure on the local currency, traders said.
