The Bank of Korea removed its monthly global foreign-exchange reserve rankings from the end-August statistical release, ending a practice that had continued for 25 years and six months since February 2001. The central bank said rankings do not adequately measure external soundness because they ignore economic scale, external debt structures and capital-outflow risks. It argued that foreign-exchange reserves, which serve as a buffer against external shocks, should instead be assessed by whether they can cover short-term external debt repayments and withstand market instability. The BOK also cited sharp gold-price swings and differences in intervention policies and asset composition, which can change rankings without materially altering a country's external position. It rejected suggestions that the table was removed to conceal an expected decline in South Korea's ranking, noting that the underlying data remain available through the IMF and central-bank websites. South Korea ranked 10th globally at the end of July 2026, unchanged from the previous month. The IMF's July 2026 External Sector Report said the country's reserves were adequate to respond to a broad range of possible external shocks. The change has nevertheless drawn criticism because the table was removed without prior explanation, reducing the convenience of cross-country comparisons. Country-level data will largely need to be checked through the IMF's International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity statistics and individual central-bank websites, while calls are growing for the BOK to publish replacement measures such as the short-term external debt ratio and reserve shock-absorption capacity.