Koreans are transferring more assets overseas and repatriating less money.

According to international balance of payments statistics released by the Bank of Korea on Sunday, the amount Koreans transferred overseas in January increased 4.2 times from US$31 million to $130.6 million on-year.

The central bank said the amount of property being transferred overseas began soaring in October last year, at a time when the won began strengthening, suggesting that many people made overseas investments and sent money abroad during this period.

But remittances from abroad by Koreans decreased 12 percent from $129 million in 2009 to $113.5 million in January. This is presumably because fewer Koreans or overseas Korean nationals want to sell overseas property and invest in the country now the won is inching up while the real estate market stagnates.

The amount of money transferred to Korea hit a record high of $410.9 million in October 2008, when the won plunged to W1,500 to the dollar at the start of the global financial crisis.