China's foreign currency reserves rose 8.34 billion dollars from a month earlier to 3.1428 trillion U.S. dollars at the end of March, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said Sunday.

The market had widely expected China's foreign currency reserves to be 3.146 trillion dollars.

The increase in March reversed a slight decline seen in February 2018. Previously, the reserves gained for 12 consecutive months between February 2017 and January 2018.

According to the PBOC data, China's gold reserves in March remained unchanged at 59.24 million ounces, with a higher value of 78.42 billion dollars, up from 78.06 billion dollars in February.