April 19, 2024

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South Korea is still faced with continuing uncertainties, but the levels may have somewhat eased, a senior official at the Bank of Korea said Dec. 12.

“As the US Federal Reserve chairman said in a press conference, uncertainties have not disappeared. I understand he noted there always exist uncertainties and that he will carefully monitor them,” BOK Dep. Gov. Yoon Myun-shik told reporters, hours after the U.S. Fed unanimously voted to keep its policy rate frozen at a range of 1.50 percent and 1.75 percent in its latest Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

“But it is true that (we) believe the uncertainties will be somewhat eased,” he said.

Yoon said Korea too will carefully monitor uncertainties and check their impact on the local economy.

Korea’s exports dropped for the 12th consecutive month in November amid the protracted trade dispute between the world‘s largest economies -- the United States and China -- which are also the largest importers of South Korean goods.

Signaling a possible recovery, the country’s exports have jumped 7.7 percent on-year in the first 10 days of the month.

The BOK official said the Fed’s decision to keep its base rate steady may assist the local financial market, as it did for the US.

“We naturally expect a similar reaction from our financial market as the US market has shown, but we will carefully watch market conditions with caution since there are many events ahead of us, such as the US import tariffs on Chinese products set to go into effect Dec. 15, the monetary policy decision by the ECB that is due today and the general elections in Britain,” Yoon said.

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)