In announcing a surprise rate cut on Thursday, South Korea’s central bank mentioned the yen only once in a statement of 523 words.

Governor Kim Choong-soo and his colleagues were probably just being polite in not pointing the finger at Tokyo. But it’s likely that the Japanese currency’s plunge on the forex markets looms much larger in their minds that the word-count suggests. Just look at the chart: perhaps Seoul might have held fire if the yen-won rate had stabilised in April. The latest drop in the Japanese currency may have pushed the central bank into action. Continue reading »

By Song Jung-a and Stefan Wagstyl

War threats or no war threats, the Bank of Korea is keeping a cool head.

Despite the crisis with the North and political pressure for rate cuts to boost flagging growth and push down the won in response to the yen shock, the central bank on Thursday left its policy rate unchanged at 2.75 per cent. But for how long it can resist the calls for cuts is moot. Continue reading »