By Ian Werther in News — 13 Mar 2026

South Korea's won weakens on oil-driven dollar strength amid Middle East tensions

The won weakened again against the dollar, closing the week at 1,493.7 won per dollar, up 12.5 won from the previous session. Seoul’s foreign exchange market showed the daily rate opening at 1,490.6, trading in a range around the 1,485–1,493 zone before finishing near the 1,493 level.

This followed the prior week’s close when the pair finished at 1,495.5 won per dollar after international oil prices breached $100 a barrel, underscoring the link between crude, currencies and global risk sentiment.

Oil prices rose amid heightened Middle East tension, with Iran’s leadership signaling a hardline response around the Strait of Hormuz. That geopolitical risk helped push oil higher and contributed to a stronger dollar, as traders sought safe havens and hedges against volatility.

Global divergence followed by convergence
The chart shows estimates of the distribution of annual income among all world citizens over the last two centuries.
To make incomes comparable across countries and time, daily incomes are measured in international-$ — a hypothetical currency that would buy a comparable amount of goods and services that a U.S. dollar would buy in the United States in 2011 (for a more detailed explanation, see here).
The distribution of incomes is shown at 3 points in time:
By 1800, few countries had achieved economic growth. The chart shows that most of the world lived in poverty with an income similar to today's poorest countries. At the beginning of the 19th century, the vast majority—roughly 80%—of the world lived in material conditions that we would refer to as extreme poverty today.
In 1975, 175 years later, the world had changed—it had become very unequal. The world income distribution was 'bimodal', with the two-humped shape of a camel: one hump below the international poverty line and a second hump at considerably higher incomes. The world had divided into a poor, developing world and a developed world more than 10-times richer.

Over the following 4 decades, the world income distribution has again changed dramatically. There has been a convergence in incomes: in many poorer countries, especially in South-East Asia, incomes have grown faster than in rich countries. While enormous income differences remain, the world can no longer be neatly divided into 'developed' and 'developing' countries. We have moved from a two-hump to a one-hump world. And at the same time, the distribution has also shifted to the right—the incomes of many of the world's poorest citizens have increased, and extreme poverty has fallen faster than ever before in human history. — Representative image for context; not directly related to the specific event in this article. License: CC BY 4.0. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The dollar index, which tracks the U.S. currency against major peers, climbed to as high as 99.862 during the session, reflecting a broader move into dollar strength as risk appetite ebbed.

Foreign investors stepped up their selling in South Korea, unloading about 1.47 trillion won of local stocks on the day. The benchmark KOSPI closed at 5,487.24, down 96.01 points, or 1.72%, as foreign outflows weighed on market sentiment.

South Korea's won weakens on oil-driven dollar strength amid Middle East tensions — Representative image for context; not directly related to the specific event in this article. License: Public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

For U.S. readers, the moves matter because South Korea is a major global supplier of technology components and consumer electronics, including memory chips and displays. A weaker won can affect the profitability and pricing of Korean exporters, influence the outlook for global supply chains, and shape the earnings landscape for multinational firms with exposure to Korea.

Events in the Middle East and the resulting changes in oil and currency markets also have broad implications for global inflation, energy costs, and market risk appetite—factors that influence American investors, policymakers, and multinational companies with linked markets and supply chains.

In this environment, Korea’s stock and currency moves reflect both domestic factors—such as foreign investor flows and corporate earnings expectations—and international developments, including oil prices and geopolitical tensions that reverberate through global markets. The situation underscores the sensitivity of Asia’s export-led economies to energy prices and risk sentiment, with potential knock-on effects for U.S. markets and global trade dynamics.

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