S.Korea's foreign reserves rise for two months

South Korea's foreign reserves grew for two straight months due to an increase in investment returns that offset a reduction in conversion value of non-dollar assets such as the euro, central bank data showed Friday.

Foreign reserves reached 362.75 billion U.S. dollars as of end- March, up 0.38 billion dollars from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The European single currency kept a weak trend to the U.S. dollar after the European Central Bank (ECB) launched its quantitative easing. It reduced the conversion value of euro- denominated assets.

Such reduction in foreign reserves was offset by an increase in investment returns, the central bank said.

The euro fell 3.3 percent to the dollar in March, and the British pound retreated 3.9 percent versus the greenback. The Japanese yen and the Australian dollar slid 0.6 percent and 1.9 percent each to the dollar last month.

The foreign currency reserves consisted of 330.53 billion dollars of securities, 22.8 billion dollars of deposits, 4.79 billion dollars of gold bullion, 3.13 billion dollars of special drawing rights and 1.49 billion dollars of International Monetary Fund positions.

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