Seoul - In the face of the global financial crisis South Korean currency reserves have fallen to their lowest level in almost four years, the country's central bank reported on Wednesday.

The Bank of Korea said its foreign reserves, gold and other currency shrank between October and November by 11.7 billion dollars, to 200.5 billion dollars, for the eighth consecutive monthly drop.

The depletion was mainly a result of using foreign reserves to shore up domestic banks during the current market turbulence and lack of interbank liquidity.

Current reserves are adequate to make emergency payments, the bank said. In the past two months South Korean banks have been supplied with almost 32 billion dollars in liquidity.

Market analysts speculated that the central bank has set aside a portion of the reserves to support the Korean won. The currency has lost more than one-third of its value against the dollar during 2008.

Following the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98, South Korea steadily built up its foreign reserves, to be able to face future financial crises in the future. Through the end of October, according to the central bank, it held the sixth-highest amount of foreign reserves, reaching more than 264 billion dollars in March. (dpa)