Dollar share of foreign exchange reserves rises in 2013

The weight of U.S. dollar-denominated assets in South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves rebounded in 2013 from a five-year low the previous year amid the Federal Reserve’s monetary stimulus cut, the central bank said Friday.

The Bank of Korea said in an annual policy report that its dollar holdings came to 58.3 percent of its foreign assets last year, up from 57.3 percent in the previous year.

Korea’s foreign reserves stood at $346.5 billion as of the end of 2013, the seventh-largest in the world. Of the reserves, foreign currency-denominated assets reached $335.6 billion as of the end of last year, it said.

In 2012, the proportion of dollar assets declined below 60 percent for the first time. The BOK has made efforts to reduce the weight of its dollar assets in a bid to diversify its portfolio of FX reserves. (Yonhap)