Foreign Exchange Reserves at $463.97 Billion at End of September... Another Record High

'Record High for Three Consecutive Months Since July'
South Korea's Foreign Exchange Reserves Ranked 8th Worldwide

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] South Korea's foreign exchange reserves increased by about 40 million dollars in one month, setting a new all-time high record just one month after the previous record.

According to the foreign exchange reserves statistics announced by the Bank of Korea on the 6th, as of the end of September, South Korea's foreign exchange reserves stood at 463.97 billion dollars.

This is an increase of 40 million dollars compared to the previous record of 463.93 billion dollars at the end of August. It marks the third consecutive month of record highs since July.

The Bank of Korea explained the increase in foreign exchange reserves as "despite a decrease in the US dollar conversion amount of foreign currency assets denominated in other currencies, the operating income of foreign currency assets increased." In particular, the income from securities, which account for more than 90% of the foreign exchange reserves, had a significant impact. Securities recorded 419.35 billion dollars at the end of September, an increase of 1.05 billion dollars from 418.3 billion dollars in the previous month.

Breaking down the foreign exchange reserves by asset type, SDRs (Special Drawing Rights) increased by 190 million dollars to 15.38 billion dollars compared to the previous month. Gold holdings remained unchanged at 4.79 billion dollars.

Deposits (19.85 billion dollars) and the IMF position, which is the drawing rights of exchangeable currency with the IMF (4.6 billion dollars), decreased by 1.15 billion dollars and 50 million dollars, respectively.

As of the end of September, the US dollar index, which indicates the value of the dollar against the six major currencies, rose 1.8% from the previous month to 94.34.

As of the end of August, South Korea's foreign exchange reserves ranked 8th in the world. China has the largest reserves at 3.2321 trillion dollars, followed by Japan (1.4243 trillion dollars), Switzerland (1.0942 trillion dollars), and India (640.7 billion dollars).