China's foreign exchange reserves reached 383.9 billion US dollars by the end of September this year, up 48.4 percent over the same period last year.

In the first nine months of this year, the country's foreign exchange reserves increased by 97.5 billion dollars, or 51 billion dollars more than the same period last year, according to statistics released by the People's Bank of China on Oct.16.

In September, foreign exchange reserves jumped 19.2 billion dollars, or 13.7 billion dollars higher than the corresponding period last year.

Analysts attributed the sharp increase to a number of factors, including a surge of foreign direct investment in the country.