S. Korea's foreign reserves turn downward in December

SEOUL, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's foreign reserves turned downward in seven months on measures to stabilize the foreign exchange market, central bank data showed Tuesday.

Foreign currency reserves declined 2.60 billion U.S. dollars from a month earlier to 428.05 billion dollars at the end of December, shifting downward after going up for the past six months, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The downturn came as the authorities took actions to ease the foreign exchange market volatility, offsetting factors such as higher foreign currency deposits and higher converted value of non-dollar assets.

The won versus dollar exchange rate soared to 1,470.6 won per dollar at the end of November from 1,424.4 won a month earlier, before closing at 1,439.50 won at the end of December amid the market stabilization measures.

The country's foreign reserves were composed of 371.12 billion dollars of securities, 31.87 billion dollars of deposits, 15.89 billion dollars of special drawing rights, 4.79 billion dollars of gold bullion and 4.37 billion dollars of the IMF position.

The Asian country ranked as the world's ninth-largest holder of foreign reserves at the end of November, unchanged from a month earlier. Enditem