BEIJING: China’s foreign exchange reserves fell slightly in May as the US dollar rebounded strongly and regulators take small steps to increase cross-border use of the yuan.

Reserves fell $14.23 billion in May to $3.111 trillion, compared with a drop of $17.97 billion in April, central bank data showed on Thursday.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected reserves to drop by $25 billion to $3.10 trillion.

Capital flight was seen as a major risk for China at the start of 2017, but a combination of tighter capital controls and a faltering dollar helped the yuan stage a strong turnaround, bolstering confidence in the economy.

The Chinese currency lost 1.2 percent of its value against the surging dollar in May, its second straight month of declines, but it is still up more than 1.7 percent so far this year.—Reuters