The nation’s foreign exchange reserves totaled US$398.68 billion last month, down US$858 million from a month earlier, as a stronger US dollar depressed the conversion value of assets in other currencies, the central bank said yesterday.
Last month’s result also ended the foreign exchange reserves’ growth during the previous five consecutive months, central bank data showed.
“The euro and other major currencies depreciated against the US dollar last month, resulting in the exchange loss in foreign exchange reserves,” Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Lin Sun-yuan (林孫源) told a press briefing.
The returns from foreign exchange reserves management were also lower than the exchange loss in foreign exchange reserves last month, Lin said.
The market value of securities and deposits held by foreign -investors at the end of last month reached US$260.1 billion, equivalent to 65 percent of the nation’s foreign exchange reserves, the bank’s data showed.
The latest data showed that the nation safeguarded its position as having the world’s fourth-largest foreign exchange reserves, behind China, Japan and Russia.
China’s foreign exchange reserves grew to US$3.04 trillion at the end of March, while Japan’s stood at US$1.06 trillion in April and Russia US$471.7 billion.
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