China foreign exchange reserves rise

BEIJING, April 12 (UPI) -- China's foreign exchange reserves, the highest in the world, rose to $2.44 trillion at the end of March, its central bank said Monday.

The increase represented a jump of more than 25 percent from a year ago, the People's Bank of China said in a report from the official Xinhua news agency.

At the end of 2009, China's foreign exchange reserves totaled $2.39 trillion.

Last month, China reported its foreign exchange investments had seen "relatively good" yields despite global economic woes.

Yi Gang, director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and the vice governor of the central bank, had said China has built a diversified currency portfolio for its foreign exchange reserves, including the U.S. dollar, euro and currencies of some emerging countries.

China's booming trade has helped boost its foreign exchange reserves, but the government last week reported a trade deficit of $7.24 billion for March, its first monthly deficit since April 2004, official figures showed.

However, the country still enjoyed a trade surplus of $14.6 billion in the first three months of this year.