S.Korea's foreign reserves fall on strong dollar

South Korea's foreign reserves declined again in January, after rebounding in December in five months, as strong U.S. dollar reduced the conversion value of non- dollar assets, central bank data showed Wednesday.

Foreign reserves were 362.19 billion U.S. dollars as of end- January, down 1.41 billion dollars from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The country's foreign currency reserves had maintained a record- breaking trend for 13 straight months from July 2013, but it began to decline from July 2014 before rebounding in December in five months.

The January fall came as the strong dollar reduced the value of non-dollar assets converted into the U.S. currency. The euro and the British pound slid 6.8 percent and 3.1 percent each versus the greenback in January, with the Australian dollar falling 4.9 percent.

The foreign reserves consisted of 334.62 billion dollars of securities, 17.72 billion dollars of deposits, 4.79 billion dollars of gold bullion, 3.19 billion dollars of special drawing rights and 1.86 billion dollars of International Monetary Fund positions.

As of end-December, South Korea ranked the world's seventh- largest holder of foreign reserves, following China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, China's Taiwan and Russia. Endi