China forex reserves fall to $3.65tr in July

China's foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest, fell to $3.65 trillion at the end of July, the official news agency Xinhua reported Friday, adding that it was the third consecutive monthly decrease.

July's fall amounted to $42.5 billion, it said, citing an announcement by the People's Bank of China (PBoC), the central bank.

Friday's announcement was the first time the PBoC released monthly foreign reserve data, rather than quarterly, and marks the lowest figure since August 2013, Bloomberg News reported.

China's central bank has adopted stricter reporting rules as part of its push to have the yuan added to the International Monetary Fund's basket of reserve currencies at its next review, Bloomberg added.

The IMF, however, said Tuesday that China still needs to do "significant work" for the yuan to be included in its basket of "special drawing rights" (SDR) currencies.

China is seeking to expand use of the yuan, also known as the renminbi, by having it included in the SDR, an international reserve asset that currently includes the US dollar, euro, British pound and Japanese yen.

The IMF executive board, which represents the institution's 188 member nations, will make its final decision in November, a senior IMF official said on condition of anonymity.

July's reserves fall "reflects the central bank's intervention in the market to keep the yuan stable, as well as the continued capital outflows," Li Miaoxian, economist at Bocom International Holdings in Beijing, told Bloomberg.

Gold reserves also fell to $59.2 billion at the end of July, from $62.4 billion a month earlier, Xinhua said, citing the PBoC.