South Korea and the United States have agreed to extend a 60-billion-dollar currency swap agreement by six months.

The Bank of Korea(BOK) said on Thursday the BOK and the U.S. Federal Reserve have agreed to extend the bilateral currency swap deal, initially set to end on September 30, through March 31 of next year.  

The two sides signed the deal in March to help stabilize financial market jitters caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The central bank said although the U.S. dollar and Korea's foreign exchange markets have recently shown stabilizing movements, the two sides agreed to extend the swap agreement in light of the lingering uncertainty sparked by the pandemic. 

South Korea currently has bilateral currency swap arrangements worth over 193 billion dollars with eight countries, including Australia, Canada and China, according to the BOK.