S.Korea's foreign currency deposit keeps rising for 3 months

Source: Xinhua | 2020-06-17

South Korea's foreign currency deposit kept rising for three straight months as companies secured the U.S. dollar liquidity on worry about an economic fallout from the COVID-19 outbreak, central bank data showed Tuesday.

Foreign currency deposits, held by residents, amounted to 80.92 billion U.S. dollars as of the end of May, up 2.74 billion dollars from a month earlier, according to Bank of Korea (BOK). Residents refer to locals and foreigners who have stayed here for at least six months.

The deposit, denominated in foreign currencies, continued to grow for the third consecutive month as companies sought to possess more U.S. dollar funds amid the economic uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Foreign currency deposit, owned by companies, advanced 2.96 billion dollars to 64.94 billion dollars as of end-May, while individuals-held deposit slipped 0.22 billion dollars to 15.98 billion dollars.

The dollar-denominated deposit expanded 1.92 billion dollars from a month earlier to 69.92 billion dollars at the end of last month, and the euro deposit gained 0.68 billion dollars to 4.14 billion dollars.

The Chinese yuan deposit stood at 1.28 billion dollars as of end-May, and the Japanese yen deposit came to 3.99 billion dollars.