Beijing - The growth rate of China's foreign exchange reserves has significantly slowed, according to latest figures from the country's central bank. The reserves, the world's largest, rose 16 per cent year-on-year to 1.95 trillion dollars by the end of March, the Peoples' Bank of China indicated on Saturday.

This represents an increase of 7.7 billion dollars for the first quarter, but is 146.2 billion dollars lower than the same period last year.

The increase is also substantially less than the fourth quarter gain of almost 45 billion dollars.

The slower growth rate is linked with reduced exports in recent months.

Exports fell 17.5 percent in January, 25.7 percent in February and 17.1 percent in March, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Foreign direct investment dropped by 26.2 per cent in the first two months.

Fluctuations in the value of the dollar against other currencies have also impacted the reserves. (dpa)