▲ This captured image from the Treasury Department shows the front page of the department's latest Report to Congress on Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

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By Song Sang-ho

WASHINGTON, July 23 (Yonhap) -- The United States has kept South Korea and nine other economies on its watch list of countries to monitor for their foreign exchange policies, a Treasury Department report showed Thursday.

The department's semiannual "Report to Congress on Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States" showed the latest monitoring list comprising South Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland.

All 10 countries were on the list in the previous report released in January.

South Korea was excluded from the list in November 2023 for the first time since April 2016 but was placed back on it in November 2024. It has since remained on the list.

The report pointed out that the size of Korea's current account surplus grew "considerably" to 6.6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) last year, up from 5.3 percent in 2024, attributing the rise largely to the goods trade, primarily semiconductors and other technology-related products.

It also underscored the Korean won has come under "sustained" depreciation pressure.

It noted that the Treasury Department stated publicly in January that the depreciation pressures were not in line with Korea's strong economic fundamentals and that excess volatility in the foreign exchange market is undesirable.

"The Korean authorities' foreign exchange intervention in the Report period appeared to focus on smoothing excess volatility amid depreciation pressure on the won," it said.

U.S. trading partners are put on the list when they meet two of the three criteria set by the U.S. Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015.

The criteria are a bilateral trade surplus with the U.S. of at least US$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 and with net purchases totaling at least 2 percent of an economy's GDP over a 12-month period.

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