South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves hit a fresh record high at the end of November thanks to increased returns on foreign currency assets.

According to the Bank of Korea on Wednesday, Korea’s foreign exchange reserves reached $407.46 billion at the end of November, adding $1.14 billion from the previous high of a month ago.

The gain in external reserve was largely driven by higher revenue from the bank’s foreign exchange operations, the bank said.

Securities including government, public entity and corporate bonds came at $376.51 billion, up $2.71 billion from a month earlier. Cash deposits in foreign bank accounts fell $1.52 billion to $20.16 billion.

Special drawing rights (SDR) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were unchanged at $3.37 billion, and reserve portion at IMF was down $50 million to $2.62 billion. Gold reserves stood at $4.79 billion, also unchanged from the previous month.

Korea remained the world’s ninth biggest holder of foreign exchange reserves as of the end of last month. China ranked top with $3.1 trillion, followed by Japan with $1.32 trillion and Switzerland with $846 billion.

By Lee Ha-yeon

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