China forex reserves fall in September to $3.51 trillion

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest, shrank by $43.3 billion (28.4 billion pounds) in September to $3.514 trillion, central bank data showed on Wednesday.

The drop in foreign exchange reserves was widely anticipated as the central bank stepped up intervention to stabilise the yuan currency after a surprise devaluation in August.

The value of China's gold reserves stood at $61.2 billion at the end of September, down from $61.8 billion at the end of August, the People's Bank of China said on its website.

China's International Monetary Fund (IMF) reserve position stood at $4.69 billion, down from $4.73 billion the previous month. It held $10.47 billion of IMF Special Drawing Rights at the end of last month, down from $10.53 billion at the end of August.

The central bank in July shifted to reporting its foreign exchange reserves on a monthly basis after adopting the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS). The bank had previously released the data on a quarterly basis.

(Reporting by Beijing Economic Team and Brenda Goh; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)