Forex report of china

China's official foreign exchange reserves recorded their biggest monthly drop in at least nine years in last month , a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Tuesday.The source, who asked not to be identified, declined to say exactly big the drop was. But he said provisional figures showed it was greater than the $US3 billion fall last October, a decline that surprised markets by its magnitude.Data for the first quarter will be released in April.The source said the decline partly reflected the rise in the dollar due to safe-haven demand and repatriation of funds by banks, companies and investors hit by the financial crisis."It eats into the value of non-dollar assets," he said of the dollar's appreciation.The euro fell to as low as $10 on Jan. 30 from a high of $1.4146 on December 31.It would be only the third decline since the People's Bank of China started publishing a monthly breakdown of its reserves data in 2000. In addition to last October's fall, the stockpile shrank $18 billion in December 2003, the central bank's official statistics show.The decline in China's reserves occurred despite combined inflows of $46.6 billion inJanuary from the country's trade surplus and foreign direct investment.Officials have said last October's drop was also mainly a reflection of a decline in the value of some of China's non-dollar assets, especially those denominated in euros.For all of the fourth quarter, China went on to record a $40.4 billion increase in its reserves.China's reserves rose by $356.2 billion in 2008, $461.9 billion in 2007 and $247.3 billion in 2006.