SEOUL, May 7 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's foreign exchange reserves fell in April due to lower conversion value of non-U.S. dollar assets and efforts to stabilize the foreign exchange market, central bank data showed Tuesday.
Foreign currency reserves declined by 5.99 billion U.S. dollars from a month earlier to 413.26 billion dollars at the end of April after growing by 3.51 billion dollars in the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
The strong dollar reduced the conversion value of non-dollar assets. The dollar index, which gauges the dollar value versus six major peers, gained 1.0 percent last month.
The efforts to stabilize the volatile won-dollar exchange market also contributed to the lower foreign reserves.
The country's foreign exchange reserves were composed of 370.61 billion dollars of securities, 18.85 billion dollars of deposits, 14.64 billion dollars of special drawing rights, 4.79 billion dollars of gold bullion and 4.37 billion dollars of the IMF position.
South Korea ranked as the world's ninth-largest holder of foreign exchange reserves at the end of March, unchanged from a month earlier. ■