Even with the first trade deficit in March for the last six years, China's foreign exchange reserves still hit a new high of 2.45 trillion U.S. dollars by the end of March, up 25.25% year on year, the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, announced.

China's foreign exchange reserves increased by 47.9 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter, 40.2 billion U.S. dollars more than that of the same period last year, the PBOC said.