Washington: The United States has maintained South Korea on its monitoring list for foreign exchange policies, as revealed in a Treasury Department report. This update was part of the semiannual "Report to Congress on Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States."

According to Yonhap News Agency, the latest list includes South Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Germany, Ireland, and Switzerland. Except for Thailand, all these countries were previously included in the June 2025 report. South Korea, after being excluded in November 2023 for the first time since April 2016, was re-added in November 2024 and has remained since.

The report attributes South Korea's continued presence on the list to its significant bilateral trade surplus with the U.S. and a substantial current account surplus. During the report period, South Korea's current account surplus rose to 5.9 percent of its GDP, up from 4.3 percent in the previous year. Furthermore, its bilateral trade surplus with the U.S. reached $52 billion, surpassing its pre-pandemic high of $18 billion in 2016.

Countries are placed on the monitoring list if they meet two out of three criteria established by the U.S. Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015. These criteria include a bilateral trade surplus with the U.S. of at least $15 billion, a material current account surplus of at least 3 percent of GDP, and persistent, one-sided intervention in the foreign currency market for at least eight months during a year, with net purchases totaling at least 2 percent of an economy's GDP over a 12-month period.

The report also highlighted the depreciation of real exchange rates among several major trading partners with sizable current account surpluses, notably South Korea, China, and Vietnam. This depreciation has led to a shift in relative prices, potentially resulting in even larger surpluses for these countries.

Additionally, the report discussed the Korean currency's depreciation against the U.S. dollar in late 2025, indicating it was inconsistent with Korea's economic fundamentals, as previously mentioned by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.