SEOUL: South Korea’s foreign exchange bank deposits in April rose to their highest in eight months, central bank data showed on Friday, as deposits in both dollars and the yuan both increased for the first time since late last year.
Foreign exchange bank deposits stood at $68.04 billion at end-April, the Bank of Korea said, up $5.34 billion from the previous month.
Dollar deposits rose $3.43 billion to $41.59 billion, while bank deposits denominated in the yuan inched up $1.21 billion to $19.82 billion.
A Bank of Korea official said dollar deposits had increased partly due to the weakness of the dollar last month, as exporters chose to keep their deposits at banks. Local importers’ dollar deposits rose as well as they bought the dollar for less.
The won rose 3.5 percent against the dollar in April in its biggest monthly gain since October 2011.
The official added that yuan deposits rose as a certain exporter continued to increase deposits, which was likely Samsung Electronics, which started trading the yuan directly for the won in the Seoul market from March.The central bank official refused to confirm which company made the yuan deposit.
Dollar deposits accounted for 61.1 percent of all foreign exchange deposits in South Korea last month, while those denominated in the yuan accounted for 29.1 percent.
