□ Korea ' s official foreign reserves as of the end of September 2009 amounted to 254 . 25 billion dollars . This was anincrease of 8 . 79 billion dollars from the 245 . 46 billion dollarstotal at the end of the preceding month ( an increase for theseventh consecutive month since March ) . o This increase was attributable to a rise in operating profitson the foreign reserves , to redemptions at maturity of theforeign currency liquidity supplied by the ForeignExchange Stabilization Fund , to an increase in the U . S . dollar translation values of euro , Japanese yen and othercurrency assets in line with the significantly strongerexchange rates of those currencies against the dollar , toredemptions at maturity by the National Pension Service ofits currency swaps agreement with the Bank of Korea ( 0 . 64 billion dollars ) , and to the IMF ' s allocation of new SpecialDrawing Rights ( 0 . 29 billion dollars ) . □ Korea ' s official foreign reserves ( 254 . 25 billion dollars ) consist of 215 . 72 billion dollars of securities ( 84 . 8 %), 33 . 69 billion dollarsof deposits ( 13 . 3 %), 3 . 77 billion dollars of Special DrawingRights ( 1 . 5 %), 0 . 99 billion dollars of its IMF reserve position *( 0 . 4 %), and 0 . 08 billion dollars of gold ( 0 . 03 %).* Reserve tranche positions are the liquid claims of members on theInternational Monetary Fund . □ As of the end of August this year , Korea remained the 6 thlargest holder of foreign reserves in the world . [ Source : The Bank of Korea ] [ ⓒ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk . co . kr , All rights reserved ]