JPMorgan Sees Won Rising to Pre-Lehman Levels on Surplus

South Korea’s record current-account surplus will boost the won to levels prior to the 2008 global credit crisis, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Seoul branch manager said.

The won will climb past 1,000 per dollar as local equities attract inflows, Managing Director Lee Sung Hee said in an Aug. 14 interview, without specifying a timeframe. The U.S. bank’s Singapore-based strategist Daniel Hui predicts a 1.8 percent gain to 1,000 by end-December. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 31 analysts is for a 0.7 percent decline to 1,025 in the same period.