Foreign Exchange Reserves Increase for Two Consecutive Months in April... $426.68 Billion

Slight Weakness in US Dollar... Increase of $610 Million

Last month, as the US dollar showed a slight weakening, South Korea's foreign exchange reserves increased for the second consecutive month.

According to the foreign exchange reserves statistics announced by the Bank of Korea on the 4th, as of the end of April, the foreign exchange reserves stood at 426.68 billion dollars, an increase of 610 million dollars compared to the end of the previous month.

The foreign exchange reserves had declined earlier this year in February due to the strengthening of the US dollar but turned to an increasing trend in March and have continued to rise since then.

The Bank of Korea explained, "The increase in foreign exchange reserves was due to foreign currency asset management income and the rise in the US dollar equivalent of other currency foreign assets such as the euro, following the slight weakening of the US dollar."

Last month, the dollar depreciated by about 0.6% (based on the US dollar index), which increased the foreign currency assets converted into US dollars accordingly.

Breaking down the foreign exchange reserves by asset type, securities such as government bonds and corporate bonds (374.34 billion dollars) decreased by 3.25 billion dollars compared to the previous month.

On the other hand, deposits (27.85 billion dollars) increased by 3.71 billion dollars, and Special Drawing Rights (SDR) rose by 130 million dollars to 14.93 billion dollars.

The IMF position, which is the exchangeable currency withdrawal right to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), also increased by 20 million dollars to 4.77 billion dollars.

Gold was recorded at 4.79 billion dollars, the same as the previous month, because it is displayed at the purchase price without reflecting the market price. The Bank of Korea has not purchased gold for 10 years since February 2013.

The asset composition is securities (87.7%), deposits (6.5%), SDR (3.5%), IMF position (1.1%), and gold (1.1%).

As of the end of March, South Korea's foreign exchange reserves ranked 9th in the world.

China had the largest reserves at 3.1839 trillion dollars, followed by Japan (1.2571 trillion dollars), Switzerland (894 billion dollars), Russia (593.9 billion dollars), India (578.4 billion dollars), Taiwan (560.3 billion dollars), Saudi Arabia (438.2 billion dollars), and Hong Kong (430.8 billion dollars).

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