Strong Dollar
The Bank of Korea announced on March 6 that South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves totaled US$425.29 billion at the end of February.
The reserves increased for three months in a row until January to reach US$429.97 billion at the end of that month. According to the central bank, last month’s decrease is because of a strong USD. Last month, the USD index rose 2.3 percent from 102.28 to 104.67.
Of the foreign exchange reserves, marketable securities increased US$3.07 billion to US$374.49 billion while deposits decreased US$7.42 billion to US$26.75 billion.
At the end of January, South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves were the ninth largest in the world. The top three are China (US$3.1845 trillion), Japan (US$1.2502 trillion), and Switzerland (US$930.1 billion).