Korean Won Leads Asian Currencies Decline

South Korean wonThe South Korean won was the worst-performing currency among the Asian ones this month as the investors moved out of the country’s assets and the exports to the developed economies fell sharply.

The drop of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar is already at 8.7 percent this year — that’s the worst January performance for this currency. The Asian shares tumble as the demand and consumer sentiment fall across the world. In the fourth quarter of 2008 the Korean GDP declined at a fastest pace during the last decade.

As the analysts state, the whole Asian region was experiencing a deepening of the recession in January after an already bad December. The risk-aversion can still grow further, pushing down both the stock markets and the currencies of the Asian region.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index (a composite index of the Asian stock markets) fell 1.7 percent yesterday for a total of 7.1 percent in January. The composite decline of the 10 most-traded Asian currencies, excluding the Japanese yen was at 2.4 percent this month, according the Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index.

USD/KRW closed its monthly trading at 1380.1 compared to 1259.5 rate at the beginning of January. USD/MYR fell from 3.7698 to 3.6075 this month.