SEOUL, July 3 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's foreign exchange reserves rebounded last month due to growth in foreign currency deposits, central bank data showed Friday.
The foreign exchange reserves rose 0.37 billion U.S. dollars from a month earlier to 427.36 billion dollars at the end of June, after reducing 0.88 billion dollars in the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
The turnaround was attributed to growing foreign currency deposits at financial institutions that offset the effect of the foreign exchange market stabilization measures.
The BOK allowed the National Pension Service (NPS) through the FX swap contract to borrow the dollar funds from the central bank's foreign reserves instead of buying them in the spot market.
The FX swap deal helped mitigate upward pressure on the South Korean won versus U.S. dollar exchange rate by absorbing massive dollar demand from the NPS's overseas investment.
The country's foreign reserves were composed of 380.34 billion dollars of securities, 22.27 billion dollars of deposits, 15.64 billion dollars of special drawing rights, 4.79 billion dollars of gold bullion and 4.31 billion dollars of the IMF position.
The Asian country ranked as the world's 13th-largest holder of foreign reserves at the end of May, down one notch from a month earlier. ■