October Foreign Exchange Reserves Increase for Fourth Consecutive Month, 'Record High Achieved'

South Korea's Foreign Exchange Reserves Rank 9th Worldwide

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] South Korea's foreign exchange reserves increased for the fourth consecutive month in October.

According to the "Foreign Exchange Reserves at the End of October 2021" announced by the Bank of Korea on the 3rd, South Korea's foreign exchange reserves at the end of September amounted to 469.21 billion dollars, an increase of 5.24 billion dollars from the end of the previous month (463.97 billion dollars). This marks the highest level again, with continuous growth for four months since July.

This increase was due to the rise in the US dollar conversion amount of foreign currency assets denominated in other currencies, issuance of foreign currency bonds, foreign currency deposits of financial institutions, and operating income from foreign currency assets. A Bank of Korea official explained, "As the US dollar conversion amount and operating income from foreign currency assets increased evenly, the foreign exchange reserves also grew significantly."

By asset type, securities such as government bonds, government agency bonds, corporate bonds, and asset-backed securities accounted for 418.42 billion dollars, representing 89.2% of the total. Deposits were 25.79 billion dollars (5.5%), Special Drawing Rights (SDR) from the IMF were 15.52 billion dollars (3.3%), and gold amounted to 4.79 billion dollars (1.0%).

The IMF position, which is the right to withdraw convertible currency from the IMF, accounted for 4.68 billion dollars (1.0%).

Meanwhile, as of the end of October, South Korea maintained its 9th place in the world in terms of the size of foreign exchange reserves. China ranked first with 3.2006 trillion dollars, Japan was second with 1.4093 trillion dollars, and Switzerland was third with 1.0774 trillion dollars.

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