Starting next year, a direct exchange rate will be applied when the Chinese yuan is sold or bought at the direct won-yuan trading market. 

The Finance Ministry said Tuesday that the arbitrage rate of exchange, which is currently applied in the direct transaction market, will give way to the market-average exchange rate in the direct won-yuan trading market from January.

Since the won-yuan direct trading market opened in December last year, the arbitrage rate, an indirect exchange rate using the U.S. dollar as a medium, was applied. Currently, the value of all foreign currencies traded in South Korea is measured in the arbitrage rate.

However, with daily average transaction volume topping two billion dollars in recent days, it has been assessed that the won-yuan trading volume has reached a comfortably stable level in which the average exchange rate of the direct trading market can be applied.