South Korea's foreign reserves rose for 10 straight years through 2018, doubling the 2008 figure when the global financial crisis hit the economy, central bank data showed Friday.

The foreign reserves hit a new monthly high of 403.69 billion U.S. dollars as of end-December, up 0.71 billion dollars from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea.

For the entire year of 2018, the foreign currency reserves grew 14.42 billion dollars, keeping an upward momentum for the 10th consecutive year. It more than doubled the 201.2 billion dollars tailed in 2008.

As of end-December, the country's foreign reserves were composed of 379.6 billion dollars of securities, 3.35 billion dollars of deposits, 4.79 billion dollars of gold bullion, 3.43 billion dollars of special drawing rights and 2.14 billion dollars of IMF positions.

South Korea was the world's eighth-largest holder of foreign reserves as of November.