South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves declined for the second consecutive month in January as the government moved to stabilize volatility in the currency market.

The Bank of Korea(BOK) said Wednesday that the nation’s foreign currency reserves fell two-point-15 billion U.S. dollars from December to 425-point-91 billion dollars in January.

The central bank attributed the decrease to market-stabilization measures, including foreign-exchange swaps with the National Pension Service(NPS). 

In December, the BOK extended its foreign exchange swap agreement with the NPS by one year and exchanged dollars for won.

South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves were the ninth largest in the world at the end of December, but the gap with tenth-ranked Hong Kong narrowed to 200 million dollars.