S. Korea's FX Reserves at Record High of $270 Billion

South Korea's foreign exchange reserves reached above $270 billion (or 312.341 trillion won) for the first time, continuing an uptrend for the ninth straight month.

According to the Bank of Korea (BOK) on Wednesday, the nation's FX reserves stood at $270.89 billion as of November-end, up $6.7 billion from a month earlier.

With FX reserves expanding $69.35 billion for nine months since the end of February this year, it entered the $270 billion level for the first time.

BOK explained that such a rise in FX reserves was led by operating profits and an increase in the dollar-conversion value amid strong currencies such as euro and yen.

A surge in FX reserves is also driven by redemptions at maturity of $500 million in maturing dollar funds used for export-import finance and $700 million worth of the National Pension Service's currency swap. FX authorities' intervention through dollar purchases is also analyzed to have factored in.

Among the entire FX reserves, securities held the largest portion of $242.17 billion (89.4 percent); deposits $23.78 billion (8.8 percent); special drawing rights $3.85 billion (1.4 percent) and gold $80 million (0.03 percent).

South Korea remained the world's 6th largest holder of FX reserves as of October-end. China held the greatest FX reserves of $2.2726 trillion as of September-end, followed by Japan with $1.568 trillion; Russia with $434.4 billion; Taiwan with $341.2 billion; and India with $284.4 billion.

[written by Won-kyeong Seong - Eun-jung Kim / edited by Jae-yoon Jung]

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