China's foreign exchange reserves hit a new high of US$2.4471 trillion by the end of March, up 25.25 percent year on year, the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, announced Monday.

China's foreign exchange reserves increased by US$47.9 billion in the first quarter, US$40.2 billion more than that of the same period last year, the PBOC said in a statement on its website.

The central bank said in January that China's foreign exchange reserves topped 2.399 trillion dollars by last December.

The central bank did not specify the reasons for foreign exchange reserves rise in the statement.

According to the newly released data, M2 (the broad measure of money supply), added 22.5 percent from a year earlier to 65 trillion yuan (US$9.5 trillion) at the end of March. The increase was 3.03 percentage points lower than that of last month.

The narrow measure of money supply, M1 (cash in circulation plus current corporate deposits), increased by 29.94 percent year on year to 22.94 trillion yuan. The increase was 5.05 percentage points lower than that of last month, said the PBOC.

(Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2010)