South Korea’s foreign currency reserve assets increased by nearly $2 billion on-month in September, bolstered by high returns from foreign asset investments, data showed Friday.
According to the Bank of Korea, foreign exchange reserves increased $1.8 billion on-month to $403.3 billion last month.
The figure had declined in August due to the strong dollar, but rebounded slightly last month as the central bank’s investment in foreign government bonds, mortgage-backed securities and other types of investment generated robust returns, the BOK said. The BOK didn’t elaborate further on its investments.
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(Yonhap) |
Last month, the US dollar index, which monitors the greenback against a basket of major currencies, climbed 0.6 percent on-month to 99.1, prompting declines in the value of the Japanese yen and the euro by 1.3 percent and 1 percent, respectively.
Of the total assets, foreign securities accounted for 93 percent after gaining $3.5 billion to $374.5 billion over the cited period. Foreign exchange deposits accounted for 4.5 percent with $18 billion, while the nation’s special drawing rights and reserve position at the International Monetary Fund each accounted for 0.8 percent and 0.7 percent with $3.4 billion and $2.7 billion, respectively.
Its gold holdings accounted for 1.2 percent, remaining flat on-month at $4.8 billion.
Among global economies, Korea’s foreign exchange assets ranked No. 9 with $401.5 billion as of the end of August. China ranked No. 1 with $3.1 trillion and Japan was in second place with $1.3 trillion.
By Jung Min-kyung (
mkjung@heraldcorp.com)
