“The impact of measures to alleviate the volatility of the foreign exchange market … The exchange of currencies of the National Insurance Service”
“Active market stabilization measures will be implemented if the exchange rate distortion intensifies”
As the currency authorities entered into a currency swap with the National Pension Service to stabilize the won / dollar exchange rate and released the dollar to the market, foreign exchange reserves fell by about $ 2.76 billion in one month.
According to the statistics of the foreign exchange reserves released by the Bank of Korea on the 3rd, at the end of October, the foreign exchange reserves amounted to $ 141.01 billion.
It was down $ 2.76 billion from the end of September ($ 416.7 billion).
Foreign exchange reserves, after falling for four months since March, rebounded in July, but fell for three consecutive months in August, September and October.
Notably, foreign exchange reserves fell by $ 19.66 billion in a month to September, the largest decline since October 2008 (down $ 27.4 billion) during the financial crisis.
According to the BOK, the conversion of foreign currency deposits and foreign currency assets of financial institutions into US dollars has increased, but decreased due to the effect of measures to mitigate volatility in the foreign exchange market.
A BOK official said: “In October, as the concentration of the foreign exchange market eased compared to September, the volume of measures to alleviate volatility decreased significantly.” It helped to improve conditions “.
“The decrease in foreign exchange reserves also includes the temporary effect of the foreign exchange swap with the National Pension Service,” he said.
Previously, the National Pension Service signed a foreign exchange swap agreement to raise the dollars needed for overseas investments from the BOK up to a $ 10 billion limit by the end of this year.
When foreign exchange reserves are broken down by assets, securities such as government bonds and corporate bonds ($ 362.35 billion) fell by $ 17.06 billion from a month ago.
However, deposits ($ 28.29 billion) increased by $ 14.1 billion.
Special drawing rights (SDR, $ 14.31 billion) and the “IMF position” ($ 4.26 billion), which is a right to draw currency exchangeable at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), also increased. of $ 160 million and $ 30 million respectively.
Gold was recorded at $ 4.79 billion, the same as the previous month, as it does not reflect the market price and shows the price at the time of purchase.
At the end of September, Korea’s foreign exchange reserves are in ninth place in the world.
China has the largest share with $ 3.29 trillion, followed by Japan ($ 1.23 trillion), Switzerland ($ 892.1 billion), Taiwan ($ 541.1 billion) and Russia (540, 7 billion dollars).
A BOK official said: “In the future, if the won / dollar exchange rate deviates excessively from the fundamentals of the Korean economy and the movements of major currencies and the concentration phenomenon intensifies, we plan to take active stabilization measures. market. “
/ yunhap news
