Thursday, March 6th, 2014
SEOUL, KOREA - Foreign exchange reserves hit a record-high level in February, continuing the rally for eight consecutive months.
The Bank of Korea said on March 5 that Korea's balance of international reserves as of the end of February was US$351.79 billion, up 0.98 percent ($3.4 billion) from the previous month's $348.39 billion. The balance has kept its upward trend for eight months since June last year when the figure was $326.44 billion.
A Bank of Korea official said, "The reserves increased due to appreciation in foreign currency-denominated assets. The fact that the dollar value of euro-denominated assets rise because of a strong euro was another factor."
Marketable securities, which account for the bulk of the reserves at 91.8 percent, rose $4.03 billion to $322.89 billion from January. Meanwhile, other holdings such as deposits, gold reserves, International Monetary Fund special drawing rights (SDRs) consisted of $18.11 billion (5.1%), $4.79 billion (1.4%), and $3.49 billion (1.0%), respectively.
As of the end of January, Korea's foreign exchange reserve level is seventh highest in the world. The country with by-far the largest foreign reserves is China at $3,821.3 billion, followed by Japan ($1,277.1 billion), Switzerland ($532.4 billion), Russia ($498.9 billion), and Taiwan ($416.9 billion).