South Korea's foreign currency deposits hit new high

South Korea's foreign currency deposits hit a new high as brisk exports lifted corporate deposits denominated in foreign currency, central bank data showed Friday. Foreign currency retail deposits reached a record 42.44 billion U.S. dollars as of the end of September, up 1.42 billion dollars from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The figure topped the prior high of 41.02 billion dollars tallied in August. Robust exports led companies to deposit export proceeds into foreign currency bank accounts. The daily average exports of South Korea reached an all-time high of 2.24 billion dollars in September. Corporate deposits denominated in foreign currency increased 950 million dollars from a month earlier to 37.51 billion dollars as of end-September. Individual deposits rose 470 million dollars to 4.93 billion dollars over the cited period. By currency, retail deposits denominated in the U.S. dollar ranked first in terms of deposit size with 35.83 billion dollars. This was trailed by the Japanese yen with 2.56 billion dollars, the European single currency with 2.26 billion dollars and other currencies, including the Chinese yuan, the British pound and the Australian dollar, with 1.79 billion dollars.