Korea's Foreign Exchange Reserves Reach $427.36 Billion in June

Last month, South Korea's foreign exchange reserves saw a slight increase, attributed to rising foreign currency deposits at financial institutions despite measures aimed at stabilizing the market.

According to the Bank of Korea on July 2, the country’s foreign exchange reserves stood at $427.36 billion at the end of June, up by $3.7 billion from the previous month.

While there were factors that could have reduced the reserves, such as foreign exchange swaps with the National Pension Service, the overall increase appears to be driven by a rise in foreign currency deposits at financial institutions.

In June, the U.S. dollar index (DXY) rose to 101.11, a 2.1% increase from 99.02 at the end of May.

By asset type, securities amounted to $380.34 billion, a decrease of $330 million from the previous month. Conversely, deposits increased by $920 million to $22.27 billion. The International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights (SDR) decreased by $140 million to $15.64 billion. Gold remained unchanged at $4.79 billion, as it is valued at the purchase price rather than current market rates.

As of the end of May, South Korea's foreign exchange reserves ranked 13th in the world at $427 billion, a drop of one position from the previous month.

China held the largest reserves at $3.44 trillion, followed by Japan at $1.31 trillion and Switzerland at $1.08 trillion.

Other notable reserves included: Russia ($747.4 billion), India ($686.3 billion), Taiwan ($605.1 billion), Germany ($590.7 billion), Saudi Arabia ($487.9 billion), Italy ($452.2 billion), Hong Kong ($445.9 billion), France ($441.6 billion), and Singapore ($430.1 billion).