Foreign Exchange Reserves Reach $463.9 Billion at End of August... Another Record High

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Eun-byeol] South Korea's foreign exchange reserves increased by about 5.3 billion dollars in one month, setting a new all-time high.

According to the foreign exchange reserves statistics announced by the Bank of Korea on the 3rd, as of the end of August, South Korea's foreign exchange reserves were recorded at 463.93 billion dollars. This is an increase of 5.25 billion dollars compared to the previous record at the end of July (458.68 billion dollars).

A Bank of Korea official explained, "This is due to the increase in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) holdings from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) allocation and the rise in foreign currency asset management income."

Earlier, on the 23rd of last month (local time), the IMF allocated approximately 11.7 billion dollars worth of SDR to South Korea, reflecting its quota share.

By asset type, SDR increased by 11.69 billion dollars from the previous month to 15.19 billion dollars, and securities such as government bonds and corporate bonds (418.3 billion dollars) also increased by 3.4 billion dollars. However, deposits (20.99 billion dollars) and the 'IMF position,' which is the drawing rights of convertible currency to the IMF (4.65 billion dollars), decreased by 9.82 billion dollars and 20 million dollars respectively.

In the case of gold, the amount remained the same as the previous month at 4.79 billion dollars because it is recorded at the purchase price without reflecting market prices.

As of the end of July, South Korea's foreign exchange reserves ranked 8th in the world with 458.7 billion dollars. China (3.2359 trillion dollars) had the largest reserves, followed by Japan (1.3865 trillion dollars) and Switzerland (1.0862 trillion dollars).

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