The South Korean won climbed 1.5% to around 1,457 per dollar on Wednesday, recovering from multi-month lows to its strongest level in over a month, amid policy support from the National Pension Service and the Bank of Korea. The NPS, in consultation with foreign-exchange authorities, carried out strategic foreign exchange hedging operations and adjusted overseas investment flows to help ease pressure on the currency. The central bank reinforced these efforts by renewing a $65 billion currency swap line with the pension fund and paying interest on financial firms’ reserve deposits to offset temporary losses from the hedging operations. Market participants said these steps helped cap the upside of dollar-won rates amid ongoing volatility. Analysts cautioned, however, that structural factors, including continued overseas investment and the search for higher returns abroad, remain a constraint on the won, leaving it sensitive to global risk sentiment and domestic capital outflows.
