The portion of the euro and the Korean won used to settle imports to South Korea both rose to a fresh high in the second quarter, central bank data showed Wednesday.

The use of the euro accounted for 6.3 percent of all import settlements in the April-June period, the highest level since 6.3 percent in the third quarter of 2009, according to the data by the Bank of Korea.

The portion of the Korean won in import settlements, meanwhile, hit a record 4.6 percent, compared with 4.2 percent three months earlier.

"Roughly half of the import trade with Europe is settled with the euro, which means that a rise in European imports led to a bigger portion of the euro in trade. The use of the Korean won in settlements was seen across trade with various regions," explained a BOK official.

Separate data by the Korea Customs Service showed that imports from the European Union reached $15.2 billion in the second quarter, compared with $14 billion in the first quarter.

In contrast, the portion of the greenback used for import settlements slumped 1.1 percentage point from three months earlier to 81.9 percent.

For exports, the greenback accounted for 86.2 percent of all settlements, slipping 0.3 percentage point from the previous quarter. The won's portion also fell 0.3 percentage point to 2.3 percent.

But the portion of the euro and the yen both rose to 5.1 percent and 2.9 percent each, according to the data. (Yonhap)