FX Reserves

South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves totaled US$373.91 billion as of the end of February, showing a month-on-month decrease of US$0.13 billion.
South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves totaled US$373.91 billion as of the end of February, showing a month-on-month decrease of US$0.13 billion.

 

According to the Bank of Korea, South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves totaled US$373.91 billion as of the end of February, showing a month-on-month decrease of US$0.13 billion.

Marketable securities accounted for US$338.5 billion out of the total forex reserves, decreasing by US$0.44 billion from a month ago, and the IMF position edged down by US$10 million to US$1.74 billion.

Deposits increased US$0.32 billion to US$25.96 billion. The SDR remained at US$2.92 billion and the gold reserves remained at US$4.79 billion.

South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves fell for three months in a row in the fourth quarter of last year and rebounded in January this year before edging down last month. “This is because of a decrease in the value of some foreign currency assets converted to the U.S. dollar from the euro, the British Pound and the like in spite of some profits from the management of foreign currency assets as a whole,” the central bank explained.

As of the end of January this year, South Korea ranked eighth in the world in terms of the size of foreign exchange reserves. China topped the list with US$2.9982 trillion (down US$12.3 billion), followed by Japan (US$1.2316 trillion), Switzerland (US$693.3 billion), Saudi Arabia (US$523.9 billion), Taiwan (US$436.6 billion), Hong Kong (US$391.5 billion) and Russia (US$390.6 billion).

 

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