Forex Reserves in Oct.
According to the Bank of Korea, South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves totaled US$375.17 billion as of the end of October this year, showing a month-on-month decrease of US$2.6 billion.
Last month, the U.S. dollar was rather strong against the other major currencies and this resulted in a decrease in the value of foreign currency assets converted to the U.S. dollar and the decline in the reserves. During the period, the Euro and the British Pound depreciated by 2.2% and 6.0% with respect to the U.S. dollar, respectively.
Marketable securities accounted for US$342.29 billion out of the total forex reserves, decreasing by US$400 million from a month ago, and deposits decreased by US$2.12 billion to US$23.78 billion. The SDR fell by US$50 million to US$2.53 billion and the IMF position edged down by US$30 million to US$1.77 billion. The gold reserves remained at US$4.79 billion.
As of the end of September this year, South Korea ranked seventh in the world in terms of the size of foreign exchange reserves by reaching US$377.77 billion. China’s amounted to US$3.1664 trillion (down US$18.8 billion from a month earlier) and it was followed by Japan (US$1.2601 trillion), Switzerland (US$700.6 billion), Saudi Arabia (US$553.9 billion), Taiwan (US$436.7 billion) and Russia (US$397.7 billion).