China foreign exchange reserves at $1.9T

BEIJING, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- China's foreign exchange holdings through September of this year totaled nearly $2 trillion, up a phenomenal 33 percent from the same period of last year.

The reserves have been growing rapidly as a result of the burgeoning trade surplus, said the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank.

China is already the world's largest holder of such reserves, having passed Japan in February 2006, Xinhua reported.

China's trade surplus in September hit a record $29.3 billion, up 22.59 percent from the same month of last year. The increase was largely credited to slowing of imports. The surplus in the first nine months of this year totaled $180.9 billion.

The central bank said the growth rate of foreign exchange reserves, however, has been slowing since the start of the year. Last year, the reserves grew 47.7 percent from 2006.

Economist Tan Yaling told Xinhua the expansion of the foreign exchange reserves also pointed to a growing interest in yuan-denominated assets in the current global financial crisis.

"Under the current financial crisis that originated in the United States and with the euro also softening, China's yuan-denominated assets appear relatively safer …," he said.