April Foreign Exchange Reserves Increase by $3.77 Billion... Rise After 3 Months

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Eun-byeol] South Korea's foreign exchange reserves have turned to an upward trend after three months.

According to the Bank of Korea on the 7th, South Korea's foreign exchange reserves at the end of April stood at $403.98 billion, an increase of $3.77 billion compared to the previous month ($400.21 billion).

This increase is explained by the rise in earnings from foreign currency asset management.

The foreign exchange reserves had set record highs until January, but turned to a decline in February for the first time in half a year, continuing the downward trend for two consecutive months.

By asset type, securities (government bonds, corporate bonds, etc.) amounted to $361.51 billion, up $3.91 billion from the previous month. Securities accounted for 89.5% of the foreign exchange reserves. Meanwhile, deposits held at banks decreased by $0.5 billion to $31.23 billion. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Special Drawing Rights (SDR) decreased by $60 million to $3.26 billion, and the IMF position increased by $420 million to $3.2 billion.

Gold remained unchanged at $4.79 billion (1.2% share) compared to the previous month.

Meanwhile, as of the end of March, South Korea ranks 9th in the world in terms of the size of foreign exchange reserves. China ($3.1606 trillion) has the largest reserves, followed by Japan ($1.3662 trillion) and Switzerland ($850.7 billion).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.