Asian forex reserves total around $2.44t
Reuters, Singapore
Asian foreign exchange reserves total around $2.44 trillion and the indications are that they did not change much in January compared with the end of 2004.South Korea, Indonesia and Bangladesh have released reserves data for January. Korea's reserves rose just $0.6 billion during January, after a steep climb of $24.6 billion in the last quarter of 2004. Asia ex-Japan's reserves increased by $173 billion in the last quarter of 2004, which analysts said was the biggest quarterly jump. China's reserves rose over $95 billion in the final quarter of 2004 to a record $609.9 billion. China and Malaysia showed the biggest jump in reserves in percentage terms in the final quarter, which analysts said was evidence of a surge of hot money into these two countries, betting on a revaluation of the yuan and ringgit.
| 
