S.Korea's foreign reserves fall for 4 months on strong dollar

South Korea's foreign reserves fell for four straight months due to strong U.S. dollar that reduced conservation value of non-dollar assets denominated in the euro and the British pound, central bank data showed Friday.

Foreign currency reserves reached 365.76 billion U.S. dollars as of end-February, down 1.54 billion dollars from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The reserves continued a downward trend for the fourth consecutive month.

The dollar maintained a relatively upward momentum on expectations for the resumption of interest rate hike in the United States that was launched in December last year.

The strong dollar dragged down the conversion value of non-dollar assets, especially denominated in the European single currency and the British pound which depreciated 0.3 percent and 3.5 percent each versus the greenback last month.

The Japanese yen and the Australian dollar rose 4.4 percent and 0.5 percent respectively to the dollar in February, according the BOK data.

South Korea's foreign reserves consisted of 336.5 billion dollars of securities, 20.25 billion dollars of deposits, 4.79 billion dollars of gold bullion, 2.35 billion dollars of special drawing rights and 1.87 billion dollars of International Monetary Fund positions.

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