Beijing  - China's central bank on Tuesday reported that the nation's foreign exchange reserves had soared to a record 1.91 trillion dollars by the end of September, fuelled partly by a large trade surplus.

The latest total of foreign exchange reserves was up 33 per cent from September 2007, following the addition of 377.3 billion dollars to the reserve in the past year, the People's Bank of China said.

China's foreign exchange holdings jumped by 21.4 billion dollars last month alone, the bank said.

China reported reserves of 1.53 trillion dollars at the end of last year, up 48 per cent from 2006.

The government on Monday said China's accumulated trade surplus totalled 180.9 billion dollars in the first nine months of this year, down 2.6 per cent from the same period of 2007.

The monthly trade surplus had risen for the past three months after falling earlier in the year, according to Chinese customs statistics.

The September monthly trade surplus gained 23 per cent from the same month a year earlier to reach 29.3 billion dollars.

Exports and imports both rose by about 21 per cent to hit 136.4 billion dollars and 107.1 billion dollars, respectively. (dpa)