South Korea's foreign exchange reserves is sufficient to pay its external debts and avoid a possible liquidity crunch, a senior economic policy maker said Thursday.
"Our 200 billion-U.S. dollar foreign reserves consist mostly of assets that can be easily recouped," Vice Finance Minister Kim Dong-soo said on a local radio program.
"The global financial crunch caused the reserves to decline recently, but the amount is still the world's sixth-largest and we think it is enough to cope with external payment demand," he said, adding that the country's foreign reserve is unlikely to fall significantly in the future due to an additional currency swap line with the U.S. and a surplus in the nation's current account.
According to the Bank of Korea (BOK), the nation's foreign reserves dropped for the eighth straight month in November amounting to 200.51 billion U.S. dollars.
The continuous foreign reserves decline raised concerns that the funds are not enough to cope with emergent economic conditions.
Meanwhile, the external debt of South Korea reached 425.09 billion U.S. dollars as of the end of November, making the nation a net debtor for the first time in eight years, the Yonhap news agency said.
Short-term debts, which mature within a year, accounted for 45 percent of the total, it said.
Source:Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article