China's April foreign exchange reserves rise to $3.2 trillion

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest, increased in April from a month earlier, official data showed on Friday, as the U.S. dollar weakened.

Reserves rose by $28.15 billion to $3.198 trillion, data from the central bank showed. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the reserves to rise to $3.2 trillion from $3.17 trillion in March.

The increase was due to the dollar's fall against other major currencies held in the reserves, and to rises in global asset prices, the foreign exchange regulator said in a statement.

The yuan appreciated 1.2% against the dollar in April, while the U.S. currency fell 2.1% against a basket of other major currencies.

Strong foreign capital inflows to China also continued in April after the country posted record economic growth in the first three months of the year.

China accounted for 95% of foreign net inflows to emerging market equities last month at $13.5 billion, though flows into Chinese debt eased, data from the Institute of International Finance showed.

China held 62.64 million fine troy ounces of gold at the end of April, unchanged from a month earlier, the data showed.

The value of its gold reserves rose to $110.73 billion at the end of April from $109.18 billion at the end of March.

China posted a preliminary current account surplus of $75.1 billion in the first quarter, equivalent to 2% of gross domestic product, the foreign exchange regulator said.

It had a preliminary capital and financial account deficit of $75.1 billion in January-March, it said.

(Reporting by Kevin Yao; Writing by Se Young Lee; Editing by David Clarke and Kim Coghill)