S. Korea's foreign reserves fall for first time in 3 months

South Korea's foreign reserves fell for the first time in three months as the strong U.S. dollar reduced the value of non-dollar assets, central bank data showed on Friday.

Foreign currency reserves came in at 370.9 billion U.S. dollars as of end-May, down 1.58 billion dollars from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). It was the first decline in three months.

It was attributed to the dollar ascent to its peers amid rising expectations for interest rate hike in the United States.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen said last week that a U.S. rate hike in coming months would be appropriate, boosting expectations for rate hike as early as this month.

South Korea's foreign reserves consisted of 335.35 billion dollars of securities, 26.37 billion dollars of deposits, 4.79 billion dollars of gold bullion, 2.55 billion dollars of special drawing rights and 1.82 billion dollars of International Monetary Fund positions.

As of end-April, South Korea ranked among the world's largest holder of foreign reserves, following China, Japan, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia and Russia. Enditem