The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said Friday that China reported surpluses both in current and capital accounts last year, although the country witnessed the first decline in the growth of its forex reserves since 2000.

China reported a surplus of 426.1 billion U.S. dollars on current account in 2008, with an increase of 15 percent, the SAFE said in a report on China's balance of payments in 2008.

The country's surplus on capital account was 19 billion U.S. dollars, down 74 percent year on year.

The administration said the country received a capital inflow of 94.3 billion U.S. dollars from foreign direct investment and 42.7 billion U.S. dollars from securities investment, but saw an outflow of 121.1 billion U.S. dollar in forms of "other" investment, which was not identified by the administration.

China's foreign exchange reserves stood at 1.946 trillion U.S. dollars at the end of last year, up 417.8 billion U.S. dollars from a year ago. The number stood at 1.954 trillion USD at the end of March.  Even though the countries forieign exchange reserve is still increasing, it is at much slower speed.  In addition, starting from last October, China has started to experience negative growth for the first time in many years.  The following graph show China's forex reserve growth rate, and the table shows recent numbers.