According to the report from the People's Bank of China (PBoC), China's foreign exchange reserves (the world's largest) fell significantly in December, exceeding economists' forecasts and reaching the lowest level since April, which was caused by the rally of the US currency.
The PBoC said foreign exchange reserves declined to $3.202 trillion from $3.266 trillion in November. Economists had expected a drop to $3.25 trillion.
The US dollar index rose by 2.60% in December, while the yuan fell by 0.7% against the US currency.
The data also showed that China held 73.29 million fine troy ounces of gold (+0.33 million fine troy ounces compared to November). Meanwhile, the value of gold reserves fell by $2.09 billion to $191.34 billion.