TABLE-Asia foreign reserves shrink by $119 bln in Oct

361 words
11 November 2008
11:18
Reuters News
English
(c) 2008 Reuters Limited

SINGAPORE, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Asian holdings of foreign exchange reserves,

excluding those of China's, shrank by $119 billion in October to $2.34 trillion,
central bank data showed.
The decline was led by a $38.9 billion plunge in India's holdings and a drop of
$27.4 billion in South Korea's.
China, holder of the world's largest reserves, releases data at the end of every
quarter.
Asia's overall holdings of foreign exchange reserves, including China's holdings
until September, reached $4.2 trillion last month, still up 8 percent from the end
of 2007, data showed.
For an analysis on Asia's reserves, click [ID:nSP395375]
Latest foreign exchange reserve holdings:
Country Reserves As at end-2007 percentage
$ billion $ billion change
China 1905.60 Sep 30 1528.20 24.70
Japan 977.72 Oct 31 973.37 0.45
India 252.88 Oct 31 270.31 -6.45
Taiwan 278.15 Oct 31 262.22 6.08
South Korea 212.25 Oct 31 275.56 -22.97
Singapore 162.20 Oct 31 162.95 -0.46
Hong Kong 154.90 Oct 31 152.70 1.44
Malaysia 100.20 Oct 31 101.30 -1.09
Thailand 103.20 Oct 31 87.60 17.81
Indonesia 50.58 Oct 31 57.04 -11.33
Philippines 35.70 Oct 31 33.75 5.78
Pakistan 06.76 Nov 01 15.74 -57.05
Bangladesh 5.55 Oct 31 5.51 0.73
TOTAL 4,245.70 3,926.25 8.14
Asia ex-China 2,340.1
* In April 2005, China injected $15 billion in foreign exchange reserves into the
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China , the country's largest lender, to help it
restructure to sell stocks.
* In December 2003, China used $45 billion of reserves to bail out Bank of China
and China Construction Bank [CCB.UL] .
Those funds are not included in this figure.
Sources: central banks. (Reporting by Kevin Yao; Editing by Kazunori Takada)