BEIJING -- China's foreign exchange reserves, already the world's largest, surpassed US$1.43 trillion at the end of September, the central bank said Friday.
The figure was up 45.1 percent from a year earlier, the central bank said in a statement posted on its Web site.
The news came the same day that the government said the trade surplus, the main source of forex reserve growth, hit US$185.7 billion in the first nine months, exceeding the US$177.5 billion for all of last year.
China's forex reserves, which overtook Japan's for the world's top spot in early 2006, have also been boosted by foreign direct investment.
In the first nine months of 2007, foreign direct investment rose 10.9 percent from the same period in 2006 to US$47.2 billion, the commerce ministry said earlier Friday.
In addition, the inflow of speculative funds banking on short-term investment gains, known as "hot money," is believed to have contributed to the reserves, although the exact figure is difficult to calculate.
However, hot money constitutes a "very small" amount, the Shanghai Securities News reported recently, citing Wang Guogang, a finance expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the top government think-tank.
Wang was quoted by the paper as saying China's strict capital controls have played a key role in stemming an "otherwise unimaginable" amount of capital inflow to the country.
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