BEIJING: China's foreign currency reserves extended robust growth in December after hitting a more-than-four-year high a month earlier, official data showed on Thursday, as the country's economic recovery boosted the yuan against a weakening dollar.

The country's foreign exchange reserves, the largest in the world, rose $38.03 billion in December to $3.217 trillion, compared with $3.191 trillion tipped by a Reuters poll of analysts and $3.178 trillion in November.

The U.S. dollar index fell by 2.1% in December as investors switched to riskier assets on improving prospects of a global economic recovery. The yuan rose 0.8% against the dollar over that month.

Foreign inflows into Chinese stocks and bonds have also been strong as China gallops ahead of other major economies in its recovery.

China held 62.64 million fine troy ounces of gold at the end of December, unchanged from November.

The value of the gold reserves rose to $118.25 billion at the end of December from $110.41 billion at end-November.