China's foreign exchange reserves, already the world's biggest, surpassed 1.33 trillion dollars at the end of June, the central bank said Wednesday. At 1.3326 trillion dollars, the reserves were up 41.6 percent from 12 months before, the People's Bank of China said in a statement on its website. A total of 266.3 billion dollars have been added to the reserves in the opening half of 2007, 144 billion more than a year ago, the bank said. The six-month rise is higher than the full-year go up of some 247 billion dollars in 2006.

Some 70 percent of China's forex reserves are supposed to be in US dollar-denominated assets, typically in relatively low-yielding Treasury bonds. This exposes China to a financial loss due to the stable decline of the US currency. The finance ministry is predicted to soon issue 1.55 trillion yuan (204 billion dollars) in bonds to fund the new investment agency, state media said earlier this month. The decision to issue the bonds follows persistent calls from officials to diversify the enormous reserves.