SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Daily foreign exchange transactions in South Korea were little changed last year at 48.4 billion U.S. dollars, central bank data showed on Monday.
Forex trading in the inter-bank market averaged 48.38 billion dollars a day in 2016, slightly down from 48.43 billion dollars in the previous year, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
Higher volatility in the market increased forwards transactions, but the trading between the South Korean won and the Chinese yuan reduced, leaving the overall transactions almost unchanged.
The daily average transactions between currencies of South Korea and China declined from 2.47 billion dollars in 2015 to 2.0 billion dollars in 2016 as incentives for such trading ended last year.
The incentives were offered in 2015 when the won/yuan direct exchange market was launched in South Korea.
The trading on spot shed 2.7 percent from a year earlier to 19.43 billion dollars in 2016, but derivatives trading increased on higher volatility.
Non-deliverable forwards (NDF) transactions increased 1.17 billion dollars over the year to 7.96 billion dollars last year, raising the overall derivatives trading to 28.95 billion dollars.
The gap between daily highs and lows in the won/dollar exchange rate averaged 7.5 won per dollar last year, the highest in six years.
