Central bank head rules out eurozone support

South Korea’s central bank currently has no plans to tap into its foreign exchange reserves to help the eurozone tackle its debt crisis, the bank’s chief said Monday.

“First, it is necessary to watch whether Europe can handle its problems by itself,” Bank of Korea Gov. Kim Choong-soo told reporters on the sidelines of an international conference, stressing a wait-and-see approach on possible support measures for the debt-mired region.

Kim’s remarks come after China announced it will not use its ample foreign exchange reserves to bail out the heavily indebted eurozone countries.

Meanwhile, Kim said that a regulatory intervention to stabilize the local currency is unnecessary at the current stage, dismissing views that such a policy move is needed amid a decline in the country’s foreign exchange reserves.

South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves fell in November as a stronger U.S. dollar drove down the conversion value of non-dollar assets such as the euro.

Last month, the euro depreciated 2.9 percent to the dollar and the British pound fell 2.4 percent to the greenback.

Korea’s foreign exchange reserves totaled $308.63 billion as of the end of November, down $2.35 billion from the previous month, according to the BOK. 

(Yonhap News)