Why can’t the won go up this much whenever I’m in Korea?:
On the Korean stock markets, stocks fell sharply on massive sell-offs by foreign and institutional investors on Monday.
And the Korean currency fell to its lowest level against the dollar in six years and five months on concerns about dollar shortage.
The benchmark KOSPI closed at 1,358 points Monday, down 4.29 percent from the previous session on October second.
The tech-heavy KOSDAQ also lost 5.95 percent, falling to 406 points.
The won-dollar rate closed at 1,269 won per greenback, which is up more than 45 won from the previous session and a 77-month record. [KBS Global]
For those of you living in Korea, now is definitely the time to do some shopping because who knows how long this great exchange rate is going to last.
11:19 am on October 6th, 2008 1
It took me about five minutes of staring at this entry to figure out why you were happy about this….I suppose it should have been pretty obvious that US Army doesn’t pay in won.
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2:18 pm on October 6th, 2008 2
LOL @ Mike. What’s funny about GI’s remark is that he seems to have forgotten that many of his readers live on the economy. That exchange rates brings back horrible memories of IMFing.
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6:57 pm on October 6th, 2008 3
I am super pissed about this!!! I don’t send money back to the US or anything, but this is awful. A bad dollar and a bad won just sucks. Almost time to move on, eh?
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7:43 pm on October 6th, 2008 4
Sonagi good point, I forgot about the English teachers getting paid in won. This definitely sucks for them. I doubt though that the exchange rate will stay this way long term.
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8:20 pm on October 6th, 2008 5
I’m cornering the creamer market, sliding won and it’s on sale at the corner supo!
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4:49 am on October 7th, 2008 6
I predict the Won will be over 1400 sometime early on Wed, 8 Oct 08, ROK time.
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8:21 am on October 7th, 2008 7
I was in Korea for the IaMF period too and left when the Won was just getting back to reasonable for me.
I think it was at 790 when I arrived, but within a year and half to two years, was at 1300 if I was lucky. I came home for a vacation during the worst of 1997-98 collapse, and I had a picture of myself at the airport bashing my head against the exchange rate sign that showed the dollar at 2100 to the won…
Many ESOLers have to send money home to pay off college loans and credit card debt. Having their salaries but in half or 1/3 really sucks.
I remember I paid off some personal family debt by buying my mother jewelry to bring with me on vacation instead of dollars.
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