BEIJING, Nov. 7 -- China's foreign exchange reserves fell to 3.44 trillion U.S. dollars at the end of November, the central bank announced on Monday.

The reserves dropped by 87.2 billion dollars from October, according to the People's Bank of China.

Gold reserves decreased from 63.3 billion dollars at the end of October to 59.5 billion dollars at the end of November.

"The fall in November was larger than expected, which indicates that China's use of forex reserves had exceeded expectations," Liu Ruidong, analyst from Merrill Lynch, said on Sina Weibo.

The fall in November came after a 11.4 billion dollar month-on-month rise registered in October. Before that, reserves declined for five-consecutive months from May to September.

Fuelled by exports, forex reserves grew for more than a decade before beginning their decline in the third quarter of 2014. In the third quarter of 2015, forex reserves fell by 180 billion U.S. dollars, much more than the 40 billion U.S. dollar decrease in the second quarter, a fifth consecutive quarterly drop.

Looking to future, China's investments abroad, rather than capital back flow, will be enhanced, wrote a professional investor with the screen name "Ji Xi Ban Ruo" on a microblog post on Weibo.