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South Korea's foreign exchange reserves rose $590 million last month, marking a second straight monthly increase, driven partly by the issuance of foreign-currency-denominated Foreign Exchange Stabilization Fund bonds. The country also returned to 10th place in global foreign reserve rankings for the first time in five months.
According to the Bank of Korea's "Foreign Exchange Reserves as of End-July 2026," released on the 5th, reserves stood at $427.95 billion at the end of last month, up $590 million from the previous month. It followed a $370 million gain in June, extending the increase to two consecutive months.
A Bank of Korea official explained, "Despite the impact of a foreign exchange swap with the National Pension Service, total reserves rose slightly due to the new issuance of foreign-currency stabilization bonds, investment income, and an increase in the U.S. dollar-converted value of foreign assets held in other currencies." The government issued 1.7 billion euros in euro-denominated stabilization bonds on the 8th of last month.
By asset type, securities such as stocks and bonds fell $340 million to $380.01 billion. Deposits rose $860 million to $23.13 billion. Special Drawing Rights (SDR) at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rose $60 million to $15.7 billion. Gold was unchanged at $4.79 billion. The Bank of Korea recently announced it would resume physical gold purchases for the first time in 13 years, which could alter gold holdings figures going forward.
Meanwhile, South Korea's foreign exchange reserves ranked 10th in the world as of the end of June (about $427.4 billion). After ranking 10th in January, the country was overtaken by Italy and France in February, falling out of the top 10 for the first time since 2000, and was also surpassed by Singapore in May, before returning to 10th place after five months. Italy, France, and Singapore fell behind South Korea again. The Bank of Korea explained that recent declines in international gold prices lowered the rankings of these countries, which reflect gold at current market prices rather than purchase prices.
China retained the top spot with $3.4163 trillion, followed by Japan ($1.2875 trillion), Switzerland ($1.0877 trillion), Russia ($720.4 billion), and India ($668.6 billion).
