SEOUL, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's foreign currency deposit fell last month due to the withdrawal of funds to acquire foreign companies, central bank data showed Thursday.
Deposit, denominated in foreign currencies, came in at 97.27 billion U.S. dollars at the end of December, down 5.75 billion dollars from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
The foreign currency deposit, owned by companies, declined 6.02 billion dollars to 78.5 billion dollars in the month, but the individual-possessed deposit added 0.27 billion dollars to 18.77 billion dollars.
Some local companies withdrew funds to acquire foreign firms, the BOK said.
Deposits, denominated in the U.S. dollar and the Chinese yuan, diminished to 82.96 billion dollars and 1.87 billion dollars each at the end of December.
Those in the Japanese yen and the European single currency went up to 5.25 billion dollars and 5.20 billion dollars respectively. ■