South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves rose for the third month in a row and hit a fresh record high in June on the weak U.S. dollar against a basket of major currencies.

The country’s forex reserves totaled $410.75 billion as of end of June, up $3.44 billion from a month earlier, the Bank of Korea said Friday.

The gain is largely owed to the weaker U.S. dollar that pushed up the value of non-dollar denominated foreign assets, said the bank.

The foreign exchange coffers had plunged by nearly $9 billion in March when the greenback strengthened sharply amid growing risk aversion due to fears of a global recession from the COVID-19 pandemic. But the country’s foreign reserves have rebounded since April as the U.S. dollar started fall on the worldwide market stabilization efforts.

Securities including government, public entity and corporate bonds increased $6.88 billion from the previous month to $372.58 billion in June, while foreign currency denominated deposits at banks decreased $3.97 billion on month to $26.04 billion.

The special drawing rights from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expanded $280 million to $3.08 billion. Its reserve position, or portion of required quota of currency held with the IMF that can be withdrawn, was $4.25 billion, up $260 million from a month ago.

Gold bullion holdings were unchanged at $4.79 billion.

As of the end of May, Korea held the ninth-largest foreign exchange reserves. China topped with $3.12 trillion, followed by Japan ($1.38 trillion) and Switzerland ($912 billion).

By Cho Jeehyun

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