China's foreign reserves (forex) climbed more than expected in December, following a mild rebound last month, fresh data from the central bank showed Monday.
The forex came in at 3.07 trillion U.S. dollars at the end of December, up 11 billion U.S. dollars from November. The figure had been in a losing streak for three months since August.
The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) attributed December's forex rally to factors including stronger non-dollar denominated currencies, price spikes of treasury bonds of major countries, as well as asset price changes.
"Despite small fluctuations, forex reserves largely remained stable in 2018," said Wang Chunying, SAFE spokesperson and chief economist, citing healthy economic development, a stable yuan and balanced cross-border capital flows.
China will keep stable forex reserves and balanced international balance of payments in 2019, as an economy with great resilience and potential will fend off external impact and market volatility, Wang said.
Gold reserves rose to 59.56 million ounces in December from 59.24 million ounces the previous month, the first uptick since October 2016, according to the central bank.
(With input from Xinhua)
