ⓒYONHAP News

The won-dollar exchange rate exceeded the one-thousand-420 mark for the first time in 13 and a half years on Monday.

On the Seoul foreign exchange, the rate surged to one-thousand-421 won per dollar immediately after the market opened for trading at 9 a.m.

By the end of the week, the figure was as high as 1,438.9 won to the dollar during trading, closing at 1,430.2 won with the markets on Friday.

The last time the figure hovered above the threshold in trading was March 31 of 2009 when it reached one-thousand-422, and comes only two trading days after the rate topped the grim milestone of one-thousand-400 won to the dollar.

The continued depreciation of the local currency is mainly due to growing preferences for the greenback amid the U.S. Federal Reserve’s unwavering money tightening aimed at containing high inflation in the U.S. The strengthening of the dollar also continues due to economic uncertainties abroad, including the protracted Russian war on Ukraine, the energy crisis in Europe and China’s economic slowdown.

The local market has also been falling, with the Korea Composite Stock Price Index(KOSPI) dipping to the year’s new low on Friday.

The benchmark index fell 15-point-44 points, or zero-point-71 percent, on Friday, closing the week at two-thousand-155-point-49.

The tech-heavy KOSDAQ also fell, losing two-point-42 points, or zero-point-36 percent, to close at 672-point-65.