BEIJING - China's foreign exchange reserves fell to 3.51 trillion US dollars at the end of September, the country's central bank announced on Wednesday.

The reserves decreased by 43.26 billion US dollars in September, marking the fourth consecutive month of declines, according to the People's Bank of China.

But the decrease was not as sharp as in August. The reserves dropped by a record 93.9 billion US dollars in August.

The country's gold reserves fell from 61.795 billion US dollars at the end of August to 61.189 billion US dollars at the end of September.

China's foreign exchange reserves decreased by 42.5 billion US dollars in July.

In the third quarter, forex reserves fell by 179.66 billion US dollars, much more than the 40-billion-US-dollar decrease in the second quarter, marking a fifth consecutive quarterly drop.

Fuelled by exports, forex reserves grew for more than a decade before beginning their decline in the third quarter of 2014.

China is battling a property downturn, industrial overcapacity, sluggish demand and struggling exports, which dragged growth down to 7 percent for the first half of the year.