South Korea's central bank on Friday reported a reduced net profit last year due in part to reduced income from securities and foreign exchange trading. In its annual report, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said it logged a net profit of 1.36 trillion won (US$1 billion) last year, compared with a net profit of 2.54 trillion won a year earlier. The decline is blamed on reduced gains from securities trading and interest payments on outstanding monetary stabilization bonds despite a rise in profit from foreign exchange transactions. In particular, losses from securities trading narrowed to 9.09 trillion won last year from the previous year's 9.73 trillion in loss, while gains from trading securities declined to 4.75 trillion won from 6.73 trillion won. Gross revenue came to 19.44 trillion won last year, down from the previous year's 20.99 trillion won. Expenses fell to 17.58 trillion won from 17.69 trillion won over the cited period. Of the 2023 net, the BOK said that it sent 922 billion won as tax revenue to the government, while assigning 408 billion won to its legal reserve. Source: Yonhap News Agency