China's foreign reserves, by far the world's biggest, soared 24.4 percent over a year ago to $3.04 trillion at the end of March, the central bank reported Thursday

China's reserves are nearly triple those of second-place Japan, which reported $1.1 trillion as of March 31.

The makeup of China's reserves is secret but Beijing is believed to keep a big part in US Treasury securities and other US government debt.

The government has diversified its holdings in recent years, trying to earn a better return by putting some of its reserves into agencies that invest in stocks and other foreign assets.

Yuan loans hit 2.24 trillion yuan

New yuan-denominated loans stood at 2.24 trillion yuan ($342.83 billion) in the first quarter of 2011, said the central bank in a statement on its website.

The figure was 352.4 billion yuan less than that in the same period of last year.

By the end of March, the balance of outstanding yuan-denominated loans stood at 49.47 trillion yuan, up 17.9 percent from a year earlier. The rise was 0.2 percentage points higher than that in February and 2 percentage points lower than that at the end of 2010.

China's broad money supply (M2), which covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 16.6 percent year on year to 75.81 trillion yuan in the first quarter of 2011. The rise was 0.9 percentage points higher than that in February and 3.1 percentage points lower than that at the end of last year.

The narrow measure of money supply (M1), cash in circulation plus current corporate deposits, climbed 15 percent from a year earlier to 26.63 trillion yuan. The increase was 6.2 percentage points lower than that at the end of 2010.

New yuan-denominated deposits stood at 3.98 trillion yuan in the first three months of this year. The figure was 54.5 billion yuan more than that in the same period of last year.

The balance of outstanding yuan-denominated deposits rose 19 percent year on year to 75.28 trillion yuan by the end of March. The rise was 1.4 percentage points higher than that in February and 1.2 percentage points lower than that at the end of last year.

New yuan-denominated lending reached 7.95 trillion yuan last year, exceeding government's 7.5-trillion-yuan target ceiling.