SEOUL, March 29 (Reuters) - South Korea's central bank bought a net $1.99 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023 for intervention in the foreign exchange market, it said on Friday.
The step came after nine consecutive quarters of dollar selling by the Bank of Korea to curb the won currency's fall.
"It is the result of maintaining the principle of carrying out market stabilising measures when there is excessive volatility due to herd-like behaviour," said Kim Shin-young, head of the central bank's foreign exchange market team.
It was the first time since the last quarter of 2020 that the central bank bought dollars to slow the won's gains.
In the Oct-Dec quarter, the dollar-won exchange rate fell 4.5%, matching the decline in the U.S. dollar index, a measure of the greenback's value against six major currencies. (Reporting by Jihoon Lee and Yena Park; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Clarence Fernandez)
