S Korean foreign reserves on record-breaking trend

SEOUL, Apr 3 (Xinhua): South Korea's foreign reserves kept a record-breaking trend for nine straight months due to a rise in investment returns and higher conversion value denominated in the US dollar, central bank data showed Thursday.
Foreign reserves reached a fresh record high of US$354.34 billion as of the end of March, up $2.55 billion from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
The figure maintained its record-breaking trend for the ninth consecutive month. The country's foreign reserves stayed above the $300-billion mark since April 2011 when it topped the level for the first time.
The record-breaking trend was attributable to higher conversion value of foreign assets denominated in the US dollar. The European single currency appreciated 0.3 per cent to the dollar last month, and the Australian dollar jumped 3.2 per cent versus the greenback.
The nation's foreign reserves consisted of $323.4 billion of securities, $20.21 billion of deposits, $4.79 billion of gold bullion, $3.5 billion of special drawing rights and $2.43 billion of International Monetary Fund (IMF) positions.
As of the end of February, South Korea was the world's seventh- largest holder of foreign reserves following China, Japan, Switzerland, Russia, China's Taiwan and Brazil.