S. Korea’s foreign reserves fall in October

SEOUL, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) — South Korea’s foreign reserves fell in October due to lower conversion value in non-U.S. dollar assets, central bank data showed Tuesday.
Foreign currency reserves declined 4.28 billion U.S. dollars from a month earlier to 415.69 billion dollars at the end of October, turning downward after rising for the past three months, according to the Bank of Korea.
The downturn came as the strong dollar reduced the conversion value of non-dollar assets. The dollar index, which gauges dollar value versus six major peers, advanced 3.6 percent last month.
The country’s foreign reserves were composed of 373.25 billion dollars of securities, 18.42 billion dollars of deposits, 15.05 billion dollars of special drawing rights, 4.79 billion dollars of gold bullion and 4.18 billion dollars of the IMF position.
South Korea ranked as the world’s ninth-largest holder of foreign reserves at the end of September, unchanged from the previous month. ■