BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's foreign exchange reserves came in at 3.1601 trillion U.S. dollars at the end of August, down from 3.2043 trillion dollars at the end of July, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said on Thursday.

The country's foreign exchange regulator attributed the decrease to the combined impact of currency translation and asset price changes.

The U.S. dollar index rose in August and the prices of global financial assets largely declined, affected by the fiscal and monetary policies of major economies as well as their macroeconomic data, the regulator said.

China's foreign exchange reserves are expected to remain generally stable as the country maintains an economic recovery trend and the fundamentals for long-term, sound development, the regulator added.

Thursday's data also shows that the country's gold reserves rose to 69.62 million ounces at the end of August, up from 68.69 million ounces at the end of July.