FX Reserves in July
Korea’s foreign exchange reserves switched to growth after three months.
According to Korea’s foreign exchange reserves at the end of July of 2015 announced by the Bank of Korea, Korea owned its foreign exchange reserves of US$371.380 billion, an increase of US$1.49 billion.
Strong US dollars and the aftermaths of the Brexit lowered Korea’s foreign exchange reserve for two months from May to June. The figure continued to rise for two month from March. But strong US dollars cut the US dollar-converted amount of other currency assets, making the figure turn for a drop.
“The turn for growth was affected by a drop in the effects of strong US dollars and an increase in income from foreign currency asset management,” said Kim Chung-hwa, a manager at the International Team of the International Division at the Bank of Korea.”
By asset type, marketable securities such as government bonds, government agency bonds, corporate bonds, and asset-backed securities (MBS and ABS) grew by US$1.35 billion to US$336.830 billion, accounting for the lion’s share (90.7%).
Deposits swelled by US$140 million to US$25.410 billion (6.8%) from the previous month while gold stood at US$4.79 billion, the same as the previous month. The SDR decreased by US$10 million to US$2.54 million while the IMF SDR inched up by US$10 million to US$1.8 billion (0.5%).
On the other hand, as of the end of June, Korea ranked seventh in the world when it comes to the amount of foreign exchange reserves. China topped with US$3.205 trillion followed by Japan (US$1.265 trillion), Switzerland (US$674.4 billion), Saudi Arabia (US$570 billion), Taiwan (US$433.6 billion) and Russia (US$392.8 billion)