Japan, South Korea agree to revive currency swap deal
Tokyo, The Gulf Observer: Japan and South Korea agreed on Thursday to revive a $10-billion currency swap deal, building on improving two-way ties to strengthen a regional financial safety net amid increased geopolitical risks.
The swap deal was first agreed in 2001 as a tool to help the two countries combat a financial crisis, but it was never used and was allowed to expire in 2015, reports Reuters.
“There’s increased need to strengthen bilateral ties as global and regional economies face major uncertainty and risks,” Masato Kanda, Japan’s vice finance minister for international affairs, told reporters.
The currency swap deal was part of the two countries’ ambition to promote cooperation, he added.
At its peak in 2011, the deal was worth $70 billion. The revived deal was struck between Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki and his South Korean counterpart Choo Kyung-ho at a meeting in Tokyo, in the first dialogue between the two nations’ finance ministers in seven years.
The swap line is not intended for any immediate use, but is meaningful to solidify financial cooperation networks, Choo told reporters after the meeting, a media pool report said.
