Choi Sang-mok, Acting President and Deputy Prime Minister as well as Minister of Economy and Finance, chaired the Macroeconomic and Financial Issues Meeting (F4 Meeting) on the 3rd to review the financial market situation.
At 7 a.m. that day, Acting President Choi presided over the F4 meeting attended by Lee Chang-yong, Governor of the Bank of Korea, Kim Byung-hwan, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, and Lee Bok-hyun, Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, stating, "I will chair the F4 meeting weekly going forward to monitor the market."
He urged, "Each institution should ensure a 24-hour emergency monitoring and response system for the financial and foreign exchange markets, and if market volatility increases, take bold and swift market stabilization measures."
This was the first F4 meeting chaired by Acting President Choi since he assumed the acting presidency on the 27th of last month following the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. This move is interpreted as an effort to dispel concerns that the transfer of the acting presidency to the Deputy Prime Minister amid severe political turmoil could create a gap in economic crisis management.
The government and foreign exchange authorities have been activating the F4 meetings to highlight domestically and internationally that the economic system is functioning normally despite increased uncertainty caused by the impeachment crisis triggered by the declaration of martial law.
On the previous day in the Seoul foreign exchange market, the won-dollar exchange rate closed the weekly trading at 1,466.6 won, down 5.9 won from the previous session. In the stock market, the KOSPI closed slightly down by 0.02% at 2,398.94. It fell for five consecutive trading days since the 24th of last month, failing to recover the 2,400 level. The KOSDAQ index closed up 1.24% at 686.63.
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