China Feb FX reserves fall to $3.134 trln, first drop in 13 months
BEIJING, March 7 (Reuters) - China's foreign exchange reserves fell more than expected in February, and posted their first decline in 13 months, as the yuan weakened against the U.S. dollar amid wild swings in global financial markets.
Reserves fell $27 billion to $3.134 trillion, compared with an increase of $21.5 billion in January, central bank data showed on Wednesday.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected reserves to drop by $1 billion in February to $3.160 trillion.
Capital flight was seen as a major risk for China at the start of 2017, but a combination of tighter capital controls and a faltering dollar has helped the yuan stage a strong turnaround, bolstering confidence in the economy.
The value of China's gold reserves fell to $78.064 billion by end-February, from $79.675 billion at end-January. (Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk and Yawen Chen; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Kim Coghill)
