China's forex reserves fall

BEIJING, Jan 07 (Reuters): China's annual foreign exchange reserves fell for the third time in four years in 2018 as the yuan came under strong selling pressure from the cooling economy and escalating Sino-US trade tensions.

Depreciation pressure on the yuan is likely to persist this year as Beijing is expected to roll out more policy easing measures to reduce the risk of a sharper slowdown.

But a test of the yuan's decade lows that was feared by global financial markets just months ago may be less of a risk, if analysts are correct in forecasting the US dollar's long rally is drawing to a close.

China's foreign exchange reserves - the world's largest - fell by $67.24 billion last year to $3.073 trillion, central bank data showed on Monday. That compared with a $129.4 billion increase in 2017 to $3.14 trillion.