South Korea's won ranked second after the Brazilian real in terms of seeing the highest gains among currencies of emerging economies in the first half of the year.
According to financial investment firms and Bloomberg on Monday, the value of the Korean won rose 3.57% until last Friday to 1013.4 won per US dollar. I's the lowest rate to be posted this year, according to Korea's (KBS WORLD) website.
According to Bloomberg's estimates on 24 emerging economies, Brazil saw its currency post the highest growth this year. The real, which stood at 2.3621 per US dollar at the end of last month, plunged to 2.1938 per dollar last Friday as the World Cup kicked off.
Market observers say overall growth in the value of currencies for emerging economies resulted from the weakening of the US dollar and the euro.
Observers added the reason the Korean won saw such a sharp growth in its value is mainly because South Korea has posted a current account surplus for 27 straight months.