South Korea's foreign exchange reserves increased in February from the previous month, after sliding for six straight months, the central bank said Wednesday.
The country's FX reserves totaled $362.37 billion as of the end of February, up $180 million from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
FX reserves reached a peak of $368.03 billion in July last year, before sliding due to a strong U.S. dollar which, BOK officials said, reduced the conversion value of non-dollar assets.
Securities accounted for a dominant 91.8 percent or $332.54 billion of the total foreign reserve holdings in February, a decrease of $2.08 billion from the previous month, the BOK said.
The rest included deposits of $19.97 billion (5.5 percent of the total), up $2.24 billion from a month earlier; gold of $4.8 billion (1.3 percent); $SDRs of $3.2 billion (0.9 percent), up $10 million; and the country’s IMF reserve position of $1.87 billion (0.5 percent), up $10 million.
As of the end of January, South Korea remained at No. 7 in the world in terms of FX reserves with $362.2 billion, ahead of Brazil with $361.8 billion. China continued to top the list with $3,843.0 billion. Japan came in second with $1,261.1 billion, followed by Saudi Arabia ($734.5 billion), Switzerland ($585.4 billion), Taiwan ($415.9 billion) and Russia (376.2 billion).
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
