Foreign Exchange Reserves Increase for Second Month to $421.8 Billion... 8th Largest in the World

South Korea's foreign exchange reserves increased by 350 million dollars last month.

The Bank of Korea announced on the 3rd that South Korea's foreign exchange reserves stood at 421.8 billion dollars at the end of July, up 350 million dollars from the end of the previous month.

The foreign exchange reserves hit a low of 420.98 billion dollars in May, the lowest since November last year (416.1491 billion dollars), but have shown an increasing trend for two consecutive months since then.

The Bank of Korea explained that the increase in foreign exchange reserves was due to "a decrease in foreign currency deposits of financial institutions, but an increase in the US dollar conversion amount of foreign currency assets in other currencies and foreign currency asset management income."

The US dollar index, which indicates the value of the dollar against six major currencies last month, fell by 1.7%. All other major currencies rose against the dollar. The euro rose 1.5%, the pound 1.9%, the yen 2.7%, and the Australian dollar 0.6%.

Among the foreign exchange reserves, securities increased by 890 million dollars. They account for the largest share of 89.3% within the foreign exchange reserves. Cash assets such as deposits decreased by 600 million dollars from the previous month to 20.96 billion dollars. Their share within the foreign exchange reserves is 5%.

As of the end of June, South Korea's foreign exchange reserves ranked 8th in the world, surpassing Hong Kong (417.3 billion dollars) and rising one rank from the previous month.

China had the largest foreign exchange reserves at 3.193 trillion dollars, up 16.5 billion dollars from last month. Japan (1.2472 trillion dollars), Switzerland (886.8 billion dollars), India (595.1 billion dollars), Russia (582.4 billion dollars), Taiwan (564.8 billion dollars), and Saudi Arabia (443.1 billion dollars) followed.

[Image source=Yonhap News]