US keeps Korea, 9 other economies on FX policy 'monitoring list'

WASHINGTON — The United States has kept South Korea and nine other economies on its watch list of countries to monitor for their foreign exchange policies, a Treasury Department report showed Thursday.

The department's semiannual "Report to Congress on Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States" showed the latest monitoring list comprising South Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland.

All 10 countries were on the list in the previous report released in January.

South Korea was excluded from the list in November 2023 for the first time since April 2016 but was placed back on it in November 2024.

It has since remained on the list.

The report pointed out that the size of Korea's current account surplus grew "considerably" to 6.6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) last year, up from 5.3 percent in 2024, attributing the rise largely to the goods trade, primarily semiconductors and other technology-related products.

It also underscored the Korean won has come under "sustained" depreci ...