South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves reached fresh all-time high of $375.46 billion in August, buoyed by investment gains in foreign assets and a rise in converted value of non-dollar currencies into U.S. dollars, according to a monthly data released from the central bank on Monday.

The Bank of Korea’s data showed that the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose by $4.08 billion to $375.46 billion in August from the previous month. After increasing for the second month in a row, the reserves hit a record high, breaking the previous record of $374.74 billion set in June last year.

The rise is attributed to “gains in investment in foreign assets including profits from securities trades and interest earnings, as well as an increase in the dollar-converted value of foreign assets denominated in other non-dollar currencies such as euros,” said an unnamed official at the central bank. According to Seoul Money Brokerage, the euro and the Japanese yen climbed 0.7 percent and 1.8 percent against the U.S. dollar, respectively, over last month.

Of the foreign exchange reserves in August, securities including stocks and bonds stood at $344.8 billion, up $7.97 billion from the previous month, while deposits decreased $3.91 billion to $21.5 billion.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) special drawing right (SDR) increased $10 million to $2.55 billion on month, and IMF reserve positions stood at $1.81 billion versus $1.80 billion a month ago.

The nation’s gold holdings stayed unchanged at $4.79 billion in August from the previous month.

According to the BOK, Korea ranked seventh in foreign exchange reserves in the world as of late July. Despite a $4.1 billion decrease on month, China remained top with $3.20 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, followed by Japan with $1.26 trillion, Switzerland with $685.0 billion, Saudi Arabia with $563.5 billion, Taiwan with $434.1 billion and Russia with $393.9 billion.

By Lee Sang-duk

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