South Korea is expected to rank top in foreign reserve growth this year, mainly due to its improving trade surplus, the government said Wednesday,citing an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report.
According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the IMF said the country's foreign
currency reserves to gain 43.7 billion U.S. dollars in the first eight months of this year and expected the figure will climb by around 70 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2009.
The gains marked the highest increase tallied among the organization's 62 key members,with the size of South Korea's total reserve likely to hit 270 billion U.S. dollars this year, the ministry said. South Korea's foreign reserves remained near 201.7 billion U.S. dollars in January, the ministry added.
The sharp increase in South Korea's foreign currency holding came as the country saw a huge trade surplus in the year, the ministry explained.
During the first 10 months of 2009, South Korea's trade surplus amounted to a record high of 34.6 billion U.S. dollars.
As of the end of August, South Korea stood as the world's sixth- largest holder of foreign
exchange reserves.