AMAC - Korea's foreign reserves hit five-year low in December

The Republic of Korea's foreign exchange reserves increased in December from the previous month, but ended the year at their lowest level in five years, according to South Korea's central bank data released today, Monday, January 6.

According to Amac News: South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing data from the Bank of Korea (BOK), reported that the country's foreign exchange reserves reached 415.6 billion dollars by the end of December, which is an increase of 21 million dollars compared to the previous month.
According to the Central Bank of Korea, this growth was due to the increase in the value of deposits of financial institutions as well as their "increase in operating efficiency".
However, the figure at the end of December represented a significant decline from the $420.15 billion recorded at the end of 2023 and the lowest year-end figure since 2019, when the figure was $408.82 billion.
The BOK attributed the decrease to authorities' reactions to recent fluctuations in the currency market.