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South Korea’s foreign reserves reached a new all-time high with an increase of nearly US$4.6 billion in the last month.

The Bank of Korea (BOK) published a report Wednesday on South Korea’s foreign reserves as of late July 2021. The figures showed reserves of US$458.68 billion at the end of last month, an increase of US$4.58 billion from the month before.

After reaching a historic high of US$456.46 billion as of May, South Korea’s foreign reserves fell by US$2.35 billion during June. The latest numbers showed a renewed increase during July.

The BOK said that “overall foreign reserves increased amid rises in profits from foreign-denominated asset management and foreign-denominated deposits with financial institutions.”

As emergency state funds, foreign reserves contribute to stabilizing the exchange rate and increasing the national credit rating. The July total consisted of US$414.9 billion in securities (90.5%), US$30.81 billion in deposits (6.7%), US$4.79 billion in gold (1.0%), US$4.67 billion in IMF reserve position funds (1.0%), and US$3.5 billion in IMF special drawing rights (SDR, 0.8%).

As of late June, South Korea ranked eighth globally for the scale of its foreign reserves. China had the largest amount at US$3.214 trillion, while Japan had US$1.3765 trillion, Switzerland had US$1.0846 trillion, and Russia had US$591.7 billion.

By Jun Seul-gi, staff reporter

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