The South Korean won showed the strongest gain against the US dollar in August: the Republic of Korea’s national currency strengthened by 3.41%, RIA Novosti reported, citing exchange-trade data. Israel’s shekel and the Sri Lankan rupee also made the top three fastest gainers, rising 2.69% and 2.42% respectively. Among other currencies which rallied against the greenback were the Taiwan dollar (+2.39%) and the Kazakh tenge (+2.32%).
At the opposite end, the Russian ruble was the month’s main laggard among the monitored currencies, falling 6.71% against the US dollar. Other weak performers included the Colombian peso (down 2.81%) and the Brazilian real (down 2.17%).
The weakening of the Russian currency at the end of summer pushed the US dollar back to highs not seen since spring last year: the dollar/ruble pair rose to 86.38, the highest level since March 2025. Over August, the US dollar gained 6.9 rubles in the Russian market, bringing the overall rise since the start of summer to 14.83 rubles.
