South Korea’s foreign currency reserves hit a fresh record high last month on near $1.5 billion issues in forex stabilization bonds.

According to the Bank of Korea on Wednesday, Korea’s foreign exchange reserves reached $420.55 billion at the end of September, adding $1.59 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 and new issuance of forex stabilization bonds, the bank said

The finance ministry last month sold $1.45 billion in sovereign bonds denominated in the U.S. dollar and 700 million ($825 million) in euro.

Securities including government, public entity and corporate bonds came at $379.08 billion, down $3.7 billion from a month earlier for the first time in six months. Cash deposits in foreign bank accounts rose $5.33 billion to $29.15 billion.

Special drawing rights (SDR) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) added $20 million to $3.18 billion, while reserve portion at IMF fell $60 million to $4.34 billion. Gold reserves stood at $4.79 billion, unchanged from the previous month.

Korea remained the world’s ninth biggest holder of foreign exchange reserves as of the end of August. China ranked top with $3.16 trillion, followed by Japan with $1.4 trillion and Switzerland with $1.01 trillion.

By Lee Ha-yeon

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