S Korea's foreign exchange reserves rise in December

SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Chinese media) -- South Korea's foreign exchange reserves rose by 720 million U.S. dollars in December to 201.22 billion U.S. dollars, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said Monday.

It was the first time in nine months that South Korea's foreign exchange reserves turned up, the BOK said.

Despite a dollar liquidity supply by foreign exchange authorities to ease market jitters, the foreign reserves rose last month due to higher investment profits and a rise in the dollar conversion value of non-dollar assets, including the euro, said HaKeun-cheol, an official at the BOK.

Given an expected annual surplus of the current account and eased sell-offs of stocks by foreigners, it is fair to say that jitters over dollar liquidity shortages would be eased although the amount of foreign reserves itself could face some fluctuations, he said.

The BOK said the government and the central bank have pumped a combined 37.7 billion U.S. dollars into the financial system since October out of a planned 55 billion U.S. dollars. In December alone, they supplied 5.8 billion U.S. dollars, the BOK added.