BEIJING, March 17 (Reuters) - China's official foreign exchange reserves recorded their biggest monthly drop in at least nine years in January, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Tuesday.
The source, who asked not to be identified, declined to say exactly how big the drop was. But he said provisional figures showed it was greater than the $25.9 billion fall last October, a decline that surprised markets by its magnitude.
China's reserves, the largest stockpile in the world, totalled $1.9460 trillion at the end of December, the latest date for which official figures are available.
Data for the first quarter will be released in April.
The source said the decline partly reflected the rise in the dollar due to safe-haven demand and repatriation of funds by banks, companies and investors hit by the global financial crisis.
"It eats into the value of non-dollar assets," he said of the dollar's appreciation. (Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Ken Wills)