Why Asian FX Reserves Rose in April 2026

South Korea is the clearest April example

South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves stood at $427.88 billion at the end of April 2026, up $4.22 billion from the end of March, according to Bank of Korea figures reported by ChosunBiz and Asia Today ^[31][34]. The reported drivers were currency movements and higher returns or operational earnings on foreign assets ^[17][34].

The composition of Korea’s reserves shows why the headline can move without a simple cash inflow. At the end of April, securities accounted for $384.07 billion, or 89.8%, of reserves; deposits were $18.76 billion, special drawing rights were $15.81 billion, gold was $4.79 billion and the IMF reserve position was $4.45 billion ^[31]. In other words, reserves are invested portfolios, not just idle dollar cash.

Surpluses and intervention may have added support

Valuation was not necessarily the only force. Commerzbank noted in April that China, Taiwan and South Korea were running surging trade and current-account surpluses while their currencies remained weak against the euro and, in the won’s case, even against the U.S. dollar ^[3]. The bank linked that pattern to systematic FX intervention that keeps real exchange rates low ^[3].

The mechanism is straightforward: central banks can buy or sell foreign currency to influence exchange rates ^[25]. If authorities buy foreign currency generated by export or current-account surpluses to limit local-currency appreciation, reserves can rise. But intervention can also reduce reserves when central banks sell foreign currency to support a weakening domestic currency. Regional reports in March 2026 described Indonesia, India and Taiwan as intervening to support their currencies, while China signaled support through its daily reference rate ^[18][19].

What the headline increase does not prove

The April reserve increase should not be read as a clean measure of new dollar purchases. Published reserve totals can reflect several things at once: exchange-rate valuation effects, investment income, central-bank transactions and the mix of reserve assets. Korea’s April figures show that securities, deposits, SDRs, gold and the IMF reserve position all sit inside the reported reserve total ^[31].

There is also a data limitation. China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange publishes official reserve data, and the IMF’s COFER dataset tracks reserve composition at the world level ^[40][24]. But the sources here do not provide a full country-by-country decomposition showing exactly how much of the April 2026 rise came from valuation, income or intervention across all major Asian economies.

Bottom line

The best-supported explanation is that a weaker U.S. dollar lifted the dollar value of existing non-dollar reserve assets. South Korea’s $4.22 billion April increase to $427.88 billion is the clearest example, with reports pointing to currency moves and investment income as the main drivers ^[31][34]. Trade surpluses and FX intervention may have contributed in some economies, but the available evidence is not precise enough to assign region-wide percentages ^[3].