SEOUL, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's foreign reserves rose last month due to an increased return on investment, central bank data showed Wednesday.
Foreign currency reserves came to 438.61 billion U.S. dollars at the end of July, up 0.33 billion dollars from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea.
The slight growth was driven by the increased investment return that offset the lower conversion value of non-U.S. dollar assets.
The dollar index, which gauges the dollar value versus six major peers, gained 1.2 percent last month.
The country's foreign reserves were composed of 391.85 billon dollars of securities, 23.2 billion dollars of deposits, 14.39 billion dollars of special drawing rights, 4.79 billion dollars of gold bullion and 4.37 billion dollars of the IMF position.
South Korea was the world's ninth-largest holder of foreign reserves at the end of June, unchanged from a month ago. ■