Edged Down
Korea’s foreign exchange reserves in January inched down from the end of last year. The reserves dropped for three consecutive months due to a stronger US dollar and a drop in the value of other foreign currencies.
According to the Bank of Korea (BOK) on February 2, Korea’s foreign exchange reserves stood at US$367.29 billion, a drop of US$670 million from US$367.96 billion at the end of last year. The foreign exchange reserves have been on the decline for three months since November of last year.
The reserves were US$369.6 billion at the end of October, 2015 and fell 11.4 percent to US$368.46 billion at the end of November, 2015. At the end of December of the same year, the reserves dwindled five percent to US$367.96 billion.
Even though the BOK’s profits from the management of its foreign currencies increased, some foreign currencies such as British pounds were significantly weakened, the value of the U.S. dollar conversion of assets denominated in these foreign currencies dropped, giving rise to a reduction in the reserves, the BOK analyzed.
Korea’s foreign exchange reserves placed seventh in the world as of the end of December, 2015.China topped the list with US$3,330.4 billion, followed by Japan which held US$1,233.2 billion. Saudi Arabia came in third with US$635.5 billion (as of the end of November, 2015). Switzerland ranked fourth with US$602.5 billion. Taiwan and Russia held fifth and sixth places with US$426.0 billion and US$368.4 billion, respectively.