Business News

Japan's foreign reserves hit their second-highest level in January

Feb 7, 2007, 3:05 GMT

Tokyo - Japan's foreign exchange reserves rose to their second-highest monthly level ever in January at 895.38 billion dollars, up 63 million dollars from December, the government said Wednesday.

The amount was second only to November's reserves of 896.95 billion dollars.

Japan has the second-largest foreign exchange reserves, which consist of securities and deposits denominated in foreign currencies, IMF reserve positions, IMF special drawing rights and gold. China has the largest and said its reserves surpassed 1 trillion dollars in December for the first time, rising to 1.07 trillion dollars.

As of January 31, Japan held 749.01 billion dollars in foreign securities, down from 749.29 billion dollars in December, the Finance Ministry said.

Foreign currency deposits rose to 125.53 billion dollars. Japan had 6.03 billion dollars of deposits in foreign central banks and the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements, 25.83 billion dollars in Japanese banks and 93.66 billion dollars in foreign financial institutions.

Gold reserves came to 16 billion dollars.

Japan had 1.74 billion dollars in International Monetary Fund reserve positions and 2.77 billion dollars in IMF special drawing rights.

Other foreign currency assets amounted to 340 million dollars.