S.Korea's foreign reserves decline in June on Brexit's fallout

South Korea's foreign reserves declined last month as non-U.S. dollar assets, especially British pound, reduced due to the fallout from Brexit, or British referendum to leave the European Union (EU), central bank data showed on Tuesday.

Foreign currency reserves were 369.89 billion U.S. dollars as of end-June, down 1.01 billion dollars from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The figure fell below 370 billion dollars in three months.

The June reduction came as non-dollar assets, denominated in the greenback, reduced on the back of the depreciation of the British pound, caused by the British vote to leave the EU.

The British pound tumbled 8.0 percent versus the dollar in June, while the European single currency shed 0.2 percent to the dollar.

Meanwhile, the Japanese yen jumped 7.9 percent to the dollar as investors flocked to safe-haven currencies, and the Australian dollar advanced 3.6 percent against the greenback.

South Korea's foreign reserves consisted of 335.48 billion dollars of securities, 25.27 billion dollars of deposits, 4.79 billion dollars of gold bullion, 2.54 billion dollars of special drawing rights and 1.81 billion dollars of International monetary Fund positions.

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