Chart of the Day: China’s Foreign Exchange Reserves Grow for Fifth Month

China’s foreign exchange reserves grew for a fifth consecutive month in March, up 0.28% from February to $3.099 trillion, according to data released Sunday by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).

The slight rise in foreign exchange reserves was mainly driven by the climbing U.S. dollar index, itself driven by multiple factors including China-U.S. trade negotiations, the adjustment of the monetary policies in Europe and the U.S. and uncertainty over Brexit, SAFE spokesperson Wang Chunying said.

Wang said the Chinese foreign exchange market had maintained a basic equilibrium and that cross-border capital flows were stable.

Although Brexit and other factors caused the pound and the euro to depreciate against the U.S. dollar — which partially led the U.S. dollar index to rise 1% in March — it is estimated that non-trading factors nevertheless helped increase the value of the assets of foreign exchange reserves by about $3 billion, analysts from SWS Research said in a note (link in Chinese).

Contact reporter Timmy Shen (hongmingshen@caixin.com), Gao Baiyu (baiyugao@caixin.com)