The Bank of Korea said Thursday that Korea’s external financial assets, excluding reserve assets, rose by $344.8 billion from a year earlier to $2.44 trillion at the end of 2025.
The United States accounted for $1.15 trillion, or 47.1 percent of the total, the largest share by region. The European Union followed with $307.5 billion, while Southeast Asia stood at $279.5 billion.
Korea’s holdings of U.S. assets increased by $204.2 billion from the previous year, driven by residents’ overseas securities investment and gains in global stock markets.
Moon Sang-yoon, head of the BOK’s international investment statistics team, said Korea’s U.S. financial assets have grown steadily since the mid-2010s, especially since 2018 and 2019, led by stock investment.
“The relatively faster rise in U.S. stock prices compared with other countries also had a significant impact,” Moon said.
U.S. assets dominated Korea’s overseas portfolio investment. Korean residents held $802.8 billion in U.S. portfolio assets at the end of 2025, accounting for 64.1 percent of total overseas portfolio investment.
Direct investment was also largest in the United States at $250.1 billion, followed by Southeast Asia at $174.7 billion.
The currency breakdown showed an even stronger dollar bias.
Dollar-denominated external financial assets stood at $1.5136 trillion, or 62.0 percent of the total. Euro-denominated assets came next at $223.1 billion, followed by yuan-denominated assets at $115.3 billion.
Dollar assets increased by $224.9 billion from a year earlier, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the total increase in Korea’s external financial assets.
The dollar was the largest currency across all major investment categories, making up 38.6 percent of direct investment, 74.1 percent of portfolio investment and 74.6 percent of other investment, including deposits, loans and trade credit.
Korea’s external financial liabilities also rose sharply.
Foreign investors’ claims on Korean assets increased by $558.0 billion to $1.98 trillion at the end of 2025.
The BOK attributed the broad increase to the sharp rise in Korean stock prices, which lifted the market value of foreign-held Korean assets.
The KOSPI jumped 75.6 percent in 2025, reversing a 9.6 percent decline in 2024.
By region, the United States was the largest holder of Korean external liabilities at $523.1 billion, or 26.4 percent of the total. Southeast Asia followed with $391.4 billion, and the EU with $331.6 billion.
By currency, won-denominated liabilities accounted for the bulk of Korea’s external financial liabilities, reaching $1.4 trillion, or 70.7 percent of the total.
Won-denominated liabilities increased by $522.4 billion from a year earlier, largely reflecting the rise in the value of Korean stocks held by foreign investors.
Moon said the international investment position is a stock-based statistic, meaning it reflects not only actual investment flows but also valuation gains from asset price changes.
“Even if foreign investors were net sellers of Korean stocks, the sharp rise in stock prices increased the value of the shares they held, raising the stock of external financial liabilities,” he said.
The data also carry implications for the currency market.
The won strengthened 2.4 percent against the dollar on a year-end basis in 2025, meaning the latest data should not be read as a direct explanation of the year-end exchange rate.
But a larger stock of overseas securities and dollar-denominated assets can create steady demand for foreign currency even when Korea runs current account surpluses and maintains ample foreign exchange reserves.
The larger stock of won-denominated liabilities held by foreign investors could also make the currency more sensitive to market swings, as profit-taking or portfolio rebalancing can lead to demand to convert won proceeds into dollars.
Moon said the increase in overseas investment by Korean residents should not be viewed negatively in itself because it expands the country’s external financial assets, while foreign capital outflows can add upward pressure to the exchange rate when investors sell Korean assets and convert the proceeds into foreign currency.
The figures show that Korea’s currency movements are becoming harder to explain through trade balances or foreign exchange reserves alone, as overseas investment demand, foreign equity flows and asset-price shifts play a larger role in the financial account.
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