The country’s foreign exchange reserves - the world’s largest - rose $21 billion to $3.205 trillion last month, compared with $3.192 trillion tipped by a Reuters poll of analysts and $3.184 trillion in March.

The yuan fell 0.63% against the dollar in April, while the dollar last month fell 0.94% against a basket of other major currencies.

China held 66.76 million fine troy ounces of gold at the end of April, rising from 66.50 million ounces at end-March.

The value of China’s gold reserves rose to $132.35 billion at the end of April from $131.65 billion at the end-March.