Taiwan was holding US$321.09 billion in foreign exchange reserves as of the end of July, a record high amount that was US$3.53 billion more than the June figure, the Central Bank of the Republic of China reported Wednesday. In late July, Taiwan was ranked as the world's fourth-largest holder of forex reserves, after China, Japan and Russia, and ahead of India. Lin Sun-yuan, chief of the bank's Foreign Exchange Department, attributed the forex reserves growth to the strong appreciation of its major currencies,like the euro and Japanese yen,against the U.S. dollar, as well as returns from foreign exchange reserve management. Statistics showed that the euro appreciated by 0.41 percent against the greenback for the whole of July, while the Japanese yen gained 0.78 percent in value against the U. S. currency. As of the end of June, China was holding the world's largest forex reserves, worth US$2.13 trillion, ahead of Japan with US$988.5 billion, and Russia with US$365.4 billion. India's foreign exchange reserves were recorded at US$256.7 billion as of July 24. Singapore was holding US$174.7 billion in forex reserves as of the end of June, up by US$4.7 billion month-on-month, while Hong Kong had US$205.7 billion, an increase of US$9.5 billion compared to May. 