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South Korea’s foreign reserves reached an all-time high of US$456.46 billion as of late May 2021.

The Bank of Korea (BOK) released figures on late May foreign reserves Thursday, noting that they had increased by US$4.15 billion from the month before. Over the last month, the amount of foreign reserves increased from what was already a record high total of US$452.3 billion as of late April.

As the US dollar remains weak, foreign-denominated assets in other currencies increased in dollar value. The BOK attributed the increase to “rises in financial institution reserve deposits, the dollar value of foreign-denominated assets amid the weakness of the US dollar, and revenues from foreign-denominated assets.”

Foreign reserves are foreign-denominated funds stockpiled by countries for emergency situations. They are filled with key currencies and gold.

As of late May 2021, South Korea’s foreign reserves consisted of US$414.05 billion in marketable securities (90.7%), US$29.44 billion in deposits (6.4%), US$4.79 billion in gold (1.1%), a US$4.64 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) reserve position (1.0%), and US$3.54 billion in IMF special drawing rights (0.8%).

As of late April, South Korea ranked eighth in the world for its amount of foreign reserves, climbing up one position from ninth in late March.

By Jun Seul-gi, staff reporter

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