Bo-ra Lee, Gounee Yang

Global Economic News

SOUTH KOREA’S foreign reserves rose by more than US$5 billion in a month to an all-time high for four consecutive months.

According to the data provided by the Bank of Korea (BOK), South Korea’s foreign reserves reached US$469.21 as of the end of October.

Foreign exchange reserves reached an all-time high of US$458.68 billion for the first time at the end of July. Since then, it has continued to increase to US$463.93 billion at the end of August and US$463.97 billion at the end of September.

Last month, foreign reserves increased US$5.24 billion the previous month.

This is similar to an increase of US$5.25 billion in August when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) allocated special drawing rights (SDR) worth US$11.7 billion.

“The increase in foreign reserves is attributable to the increase in the U.S. dollar conversion of other foreign currency assets, the issuance of currency stabilization bonds, foreign currency deposits, and operating income of foreign currency assets,” the BOK said.

By foreign currency asset, deposits increased US$5.95 billion month on month to US$25.79 billion.

“IMF Position,” the right to withdraw convertible currency to the IMF rose by US$80 million to US$4.68 billion and SDR rose by US$140 million to US$15.52 billion.