BEIJING (Reuters) -China's foreign exchange reserves fell almost 1% in September from the previous month, official data showed on Thursday, hitting their lowest level since April as the dollar gained ground against a basket of other major currencies.
The country's foreign exchange reserves - the world's largest - stood at $3.201 trillion at the end of September, data from the central bank's State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed.
That was lower that the $3.225 trillion forecast in a Reuters poll of analysts and down from $3.232 trillion at the end of August.
The $31.5 billion month-on-month decline was the steepest since March.
The dollar index climbed 1.7% in September, making the value of assets in other major currencies lower in dollar terms.
Meanwhile, China held 62.64 million fine troy ounces of gold at the end of September, unchanged from the previous month.
However, the value of its gold reserves slipped to $109.18 billion from $113.69 billion at the end of August as gold prices eased.