Korea Business News Agency - NSP NEWS AGENCY.

(Seoul=NSP NEWS) = South Korea's foreign exchange reserves have fallen by nearly $5 billion in a month. The country fell from 9th to 10th in the world in terms of foreign exchange reserves.

According to the ‘Foreign Exchange Reserves at the End of April 2025’ released by the Bank of Korea on the 8th, Korea’s foreign exchange reserves last month were 404.67 billion dollars, a decrease of 4.99 billion dollars from the end of the previous month. This is the lowest level since 403.88 billion dollars in April 2020.

The Bank of Korea explained, “The temporary decrease was due to factors such as the foreign exchange swap transaction with the National Pension Service and the decrease in foreign currency deposits at financial institutions as the quarter-end effect disappeared.” During the swap transaction period, foreign exchange reserves decrease by the transaction amount, but since this is returned at maturity, the decrease in foreign exchange reserves is temporary.

Foreign exchange reserves consisted of ▲listed securities at USD 356.5 billion (88.1%) ▲deposits at USD 23.22 billion(5.7%) ▲SDR(special drawing rights to the International Monetary Fund) at USD 15.68 billion(3.9%) ▲gold at USD 4.79 billion ▲IMF position at USD 4.47 billion(1.1%). In particular, SDR is at its highest level since August 2021.

Meanwhile, Korea‘s foreign exchange reserves in March ranked 10th in the world, down one place from 9th the previous month. This is the lowest ranking since the Bank of Korea began publishing the world rankings of foreign exchange reserves in December 2000.

By Soon-ki Lee(s8789@nspna.com) and Soo-in Kang(sink606@nspna.com)

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