China's foreign exchange reserves came in at 3.09 trillion U.S. dollars, and its gold reserves rose for a tenth straight month at the end of September, official data showed Sunday.

The amount increased by 19.7 billion U.S. dollars, or 0.6 percent from the beginning of 2019, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).

Wang Chunying, a spokesperson for the SAFE, said that the scale of forex reserves was affected by multiple factors, including exchange rates and changes in asset prices.

"Factors including global economic growth, monetary policies of major countries, global trade situation and geopolitics led to the rise in the U.S. dollar index and the drop in bond prices of major countries," said Wang.

Since the beginning of the year, the Chinese economy, despite a complex global situation, has maintained overall stability and posted stable growth with an improved economic structure, said Wang. China's forex reserves are generally stable and small fluctuations in scale are mainly attributable to valuation factors, the spokesperson added.

Meanwhile, the People's Bank of China held more gold in September for a tenth straight month. According to data on its website, the holdings raised to 62.64 million ounces last month from 62.45 million in August. In tonnage terms, 5.9 tonnes were purchased, following the 99.8 tonnes over the prior nine months.

Net gold purchases by global central banks reached 374.1 tonnes in the first half of the year, the largest net increase in global official gold reserves on record, according to the World Gold Council (WGC).

More central banks of emerging markets are accumulating gold reserves at a steady pace, the WGC reported.

(With input from Xinhua)