Seoul [South Korea], November 17: South Korea's foreign currency deposit fell for the first time in five months in October due to lower demand for the U.S. dollar deposit, central bank data showed Sunday.
The deposit, denominated in foreign currencies, declined 5.1 billion U.S. dollars from a month earlier to 98.97 billion dollars at the end of October, after growing for the past four months, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
The downturn was attributed to lower U.S. currency deposit, affected by the local currency's depreciation versus the greenback that led to the sale of the U.S. currency.
The exchange rate of the won against the U.S. dollar stood at 1,383.3 won per U.S. dollar at the end of October, up from 1,319.6 won at the end of September.
The deposit, denominated in the U.S. dollar, retreated 3.1 billion dollars from a month earlier to 82.74 billion dollars at the end of October.
The Japanese yen, the euro and the Chinese yuan deposits shrank to 9.8 billion dollars, 4.18 billion dollars and 1.06 billion dollars respectively.
Foreign currency deposit, owned by companies, dipped 4.47 billion dollars to 84.28 billion dollars in the cited month, while the individuals-possessed deposit slipped 0.63 billion dollars to 14.69 billion dollars.
Source: Xinhua
