SEOUL, June 21 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's foreign currency deposit fell for the fifth straight month owing to the sale of the strong U000roulette.S000roulette. dollar, central bank data showed Friday.
The deposit, denominated in foreign currencies, shrank 2.39 billion U.S. dollars from a month earlier to 88.96 billion dollars at the end of May, continuing to slide since January, according to the Bank of Korea.
The consecutive reduction came as the strong dollar led companies to dump the U.S. currency.
The average won/dollar exchange rate gained from 1,330.69 won per dollar in March to 1,367.83 won in April before slightly falling to 1,365.39 won in May.
The deposit, denominated in the U.S. dollar, dipped 2.12 billion dollars from a month earlier to 72.21 billion dollars at the end of May.
The Japanese yen deposit increased to 10.07 billion dollars, but the euro deposit decreased to 4.47 billion dollars.
The Chinese yuan deposit stood at 1.09 billion dollars at the end of May, up 0.18 billion dollars from a month ago.
Foreign currency deposit, owned by companies, dived 2.56 billion dollars to 73.95 billion dollars in the cited month, while the individuals-possessed deposit added 0.17 billion dollars to 15.01 billion dollars.■