BEIJING, April 15 -- The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said on Tuesday that China's foreign exchange reserves hit 3.95 trillion U.S. dollars at the end of March.

The figure was 130 billion U.S. dollars more than that at the end of 2013, according to the bank.

Growth of China's foreign exchange reserves got back on the fast track in 2013. The country's foreign exchange reserves hit 3.82 trillion U.S. dollars at the end of 2013, up 509.7 billion U.S. dollars from that at the end of 2012.

The nation's foreign exchange reserves totaled around 100 billion U.S. dollars in 1996. It took only a decade for China to surpass Japan to become the largest holder of foreign exchange reserves in 2006, when reserves topped 1 trillion U.S. dollars.

Currently, the nation's foreign exchange reserves are almost three times that of Japan.