BOK chief, finance minister to meet Yellen in Seoul next week

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen / AFP-Yonhap

By Yoon Ja-young

Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Rhee Chang-yong will meet U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in Seoul next week, amid concerns over the Korean currency weakening against the dollar.

According to the central bank, Wednesday, Rhee and Yellen will have a bilateral meeting in Seoul on July 19, accompanied by their staffs. It will be the second bilateral meeting between the Korean central bank governor and the U.S. treasury secretary, following a 2016 June meeting between then-BOK governor Lee Ju-yeol and then-U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew. They had a closed-door meeting at the BOK headquarters in Seoul at that time.

Yellen will be visiting Seoul on July 19 and 20 as part of her trip to Asia, after attending the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in Bali, Indonesia, scheduled for July 15 and 16.

During the meeting, the two chiefs will be discussing key issues concerning the global economy and financial market, including global policy coordination.

This meeting is getting the spotlight in particular as the steeply rising won-dollar exchange rate has been a concern for Korea. The Korean currency was being traded at 1,316.4 won per dollar during Tuesday's trading session, which is the weakest level in 13 years and three months. Amid concerns over the steep depreciation of the Korean won against the dollar and the exodus of foreign capital, there have been growing calls that the Korea-U.S. currency swap deal should be revived to stabilize the foreign exchange market.

In a meeting with the press after the monetary policy board meeting Wednesday, where the BOK delivered a 0.5-percentage-point rate hike, Rhee said that he hopes talks on a Korea-U.S. currency swap deal will take place during Yellen's meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choo Kyung-ho, also scheduled during her visit here. The meeting follows a phone call two weeks ago, in which the two pledged cooperation between their institutions.

Yellen is also scheduled to meet with around 30 female officials of the Korean central bank to talk about women in the field of economics, to share her experience as a renowned female economist and to offer them encouragement.