China said on Friday that its investments of foreign exchange reserves remained profitable last year despite the global financial crisis that sent financial assets shrinking in value, dispelling concerns of huge losses with such investments.

"We managed to get some proceeds from managing the country's foreign exchange reserves last year, while at the same time maintaining the safety and liquidity of the assets," Hu Xiaolian, head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), told Xinhua in an interview.

China's overseas earnings reached US$82.5 billion in 2008, up 8 percent from a year earlier, according to the country's balance of payments statistics released on Friday by the SAFE.

Hu said "a considerable proportion" of such earnings were from investments of forex reserves, without revealing specific figures.

"Such earnings from forex reserves investment, though represented a lower rate of profit from previous years, were hard-earned," she said.

Hu said that diversified investments in different assets and assorted holding in various currencies have played a major role in producing the proceedings.

"The value of assets has been kept stable on the whole, as diversified investments in different assets and currencies are highly complementary," she said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 24, 2009)