China's forex reserves fall in January

BEIJING - China's foreign exchange (forex) reserves fell in January, as global financial asset prices generally dropped amid a strengthening US dollar, data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) showed on Monday.

The country's forex holdings came in at $3.2216 trillion at the end of January, down $28.5 billion, or 0.88 percent, from the end of 2021.

"The forex market has maintained stable operation in January, with domestic supply and demand for forex remaining basically balanced," SAFE deputy head Wang Chunying said, commenting on the data.

Wang attributed the decline to the impact of factors such as monetary policy expectations in major economies, geopolitics and macroeconomic data, which contributed to the rise of the US dollar index and the changes in asset prices.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, mounting external uncertainties, and the volatile global financial market, China's economic resilience remained strong with great potentials and sound long-term fundamentals, which will offer strong support for the stability of the country's forex reverses, Wang said.