Foreign Exchange Reserves at Lowest in 40 Months... "Impact of Market Volatility Mitigation Measures"

Foreign Exchange Reserves at $412.87 Billion at End of October
Decline for Three Consecutive Months... Depreciation of Other Currencies Against the US Dollar

South Korea's foreign exchange reserves decreased by 1.24 billion dollars, marking the lowest level in 40 months.

The Bank of Korea announced on the 3rd that as of the end of October, South Korea's foreign exchange reserves stood at 412.87 billion dollars, down 1.24 billion dollars from the end of the previous month. This marks the third consecutive month of decline following August (-3.5 billion dollars) and September (-4.18 billion dollars).

This is the lowest level since June 2020 (410.75 billion dollars). The Bank of Korea explained, "This was mainly due to measures to ease foreign exchange market volatility, including temporary effects from the foreign exchange swap with the National Pension Service, and a decrease in the US dollar conversion amount of foreign currency assets in other currencies."

During October, the US dollar index fell by about 0.1%, but other currencies such as the Chinese yuan and Australian dollar, which are not included in the US dollar index, depreciated against the US dollar.

Breaking down the foreign exchange reserves by asset type, securities such as government and corporate bonds (369.98 billion dollars) decreased by 2.6 billion dollars, while deposits, which correspond to cash (18.87 billion dollars), increased by 1.47 billion dollars.

Additionally, Special Drawing Rights (SDR) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) (14.77 billion dollars) decreased by 30 million dollars, and the 'IMF position,' which is the reserve tranche position with the IMF (4.45 billion dollars), decreased by 80 million dollars.

Gold holdings remained unchanged at 4.79 billion dollars compared to the previous month, as they are recorded at the purchase price without reflecting market prices.

As of the end of September, South Korea ranked 9th in the world in terms of the size of foreign exchange reserves, the same as the previous month.

China had the largest reserves at 3.1151 trillion dollars, followed by Japan (1.2372 trillion dollars), Switzerland (818.4 billion dollars), India (587.7 billion dollars), Russia (569 billion dollars), Taiwan (564 billion dollars), Saudi Arabia (439.3 billion dollars), and Hong Kong (415.7 billion dollars).