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BEIJING, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's foreign exchange reserves continued to fall in September.
Forex reserves fell to 3.166 trillion U.S. dollars at the end of September, down from 3.185 trillion in August, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said on Friday.
The forex reserves have declined for three consecutive months since July, according to the bank. Economists had expected the reserves to stand at 3.18 trillion dollars during last month.
If denominated in Special Drawing Rights, reserves fell to 2.27 trillion, according to the PBOC.
China sold some of its forex reserves to stabilize RMB interest rates in September, said Zhao Yang of Nomura, adding that Chinese residents' purchase of foreign currency ahead of the weeklong National Day holiday which ended Friday was also a reason for the fall in forex reserves.
PBOC data also showed that the country's official gold reserves stood at 78.2 billion U.S. dollars by end of September, up from 77.18 billion in August.
