[BOK Press Release]Foreign Reserves as of August 2010

Korea's official foreign reserves as of the end of August 2010 amounted to 285.35 billion dollars. This was a decrease of 0.6 billion dollars from the 285.96 billion dollars total at the end of the preceding month.

This was mainly attributable to a decrease in the U.S. dollar translation values of euro- and pound-denominated reserves in line with the weakness of those currencies against the dollar, offsetting an increase in the operating profits on the foreign reserves.

As of the end of August this year, Korea's official foreign reserves (285.35 billion dollars) consist of 244.2 billion dollars of securities (85.6%), 36.66 billion dollars of deposits (12.8%), 3.47 billion dollars of Special Drawing Rights (1.2%), 0.95 billion dollars of its IMF reserve position* (0.3%), and 0.08 billion dollars of Gold (0.03%).

Their reserve tranche positions are the liquid claims of members on the International Monetary Fund.

As of the end of July this year, Korea was the fifth largest holder of foreign reserves in the world, up from the sixth of the previous month-end.

[Source: The Bank of Korea]

Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com