SEOUL, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's foreign exchange reserves grew for a third successive month due to higher foreign currency deposits at financial institutions and valuation gains from non-U.S. dollar assets, central bank data showed Thursday.
The foreign reserves advanced 14.33 billion U.S. dollars from a month earlier to 442.28 billion U.S. dollars at the end of August, keeping upward momentum since June, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
The consecutive increase was attributed to the large influx of foreign currency deposits at financial institutions, solid investment returns and the weakening U.S. dollar that expanded the conversion value of non-dollar assets.
The dollar index, which gauges the U.S. dollar value versus six major peers, declined 0.2 percent last month.
The country's foreign reserves were composed of 387.07 billion dollars of securities, 30.30 billion dollars of deposits, 15.77 billion dollars of special drawing rights, 4.79 billion dollars of gold bullion and 4.34 billion dollars of the IMF reserve position.
Securities continued to comprise the vast majority of South Korea's foreign reserves, while gold holdings remained unchanged. ■