Expectations of Dollar Rise... Foreign Currency Deposits Increase by $1.23 Billion in September

The image of US dollars placed at the Counterfeit Response Center of Hana Bank Headquarters in Euljiro, Jung-gu, Seoul [Image source=Yonhap News]

With growing expectations that the dollar price will rise, residents' foreign currency deposits increased by more than 1.2 billion dollars last month.

According to the resident foreign currency deposit trends announced by the Bank of Korea on the 20th, as of the end of last month, the balance of residents' foreign currency deposits at foreign exchange banks was 89.5 billion dollars, an increase of 1.23 billion dollars compared to the end of the previous month. This marks a return to an upward trend in just one month.

Resident foreign currency deposits refer to domestic foreign currency deposits held by nationals, domestic companies, foreigners residing in Korea for more than six months, and foreign companies operating domestically.

By entity, corporate deposits amounted to 75.56 billion dollars, increasing by 1.15 billion dollars in one month.

Individual deposits also rose by 80 million dollars to 13.94 billion dollars. This is the first increase in individual deposits compared to the end of the previous month this year.

Recently, as the KRW-USD exchange rate has continued to rise, individuals have shown a tendency to sell dollars, leading to a decline in individual deposits since the end of last year.

By currency, dollar deposits increased by 2.36 billion dollars to 77.26 billion dollars in one month, while euro deposits decreased by 600 million dollars to 4.14 billion dollars.

The Bank of Korea explained, "In the case of dollar deposits, the increase was mainly among companies due to the deposit of export-import settlement payments and delays in spot foreign exchange sales," and "euro deposits decreased due to a reduction in customer deposits at some securities firms and spot foreign exchange sales by some companies."

By bank type, domestic banks saw an increase of 2.8 billion dollars to 81.93 billion dollars, whereas foreign bank branches decreased by 1.57 billion dollars to 7.57 billion dollars.

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