SEOUL – South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves measured in U.S. dollars shrank by the most in more than two years in April on the dollar’s strength and dollar-selling intervention by the authorities, data showed on Wednesday.
The country’s foreign exchange reserves stood at $449.30 billion as of the end of April, down $8.51 billion from $457.81 a month before, the Bank of Korea said.
It was the biggest monthly fall in the amount of foreign exchange reserves valued in U.S. dollars since March 2020.
The Bank of Korea in a statement attributed the decline to a stronger U.S. dollar and “measures to ease volatility in the foreign exchange market”, a phrase often used to describe intervention by the authorities.
It did not elaborate on the intervention.
The won fell 3.5% against U.S. dollar last month, logging the fastest monthly fall since October 2016.
(Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Choonsik Yoo)
