China still has the world's largest foreign exchange reserve, but it dropped to $3.33 trillion by the end of December — the lowest level since late 2011 and $110 billion less than a month ago, according to the central bank.

Zhou said that while the proper level of reserves needed to be further discussed, China is able to cope with possible challenges. "Currently, there's nothing to worry about."

Li Daokui, an economics professor at Tsinghua University and a former member of the central bank's monetary policy committee, was cited by Chinese-language media as saying that foreign reserves this year should not be lower than $3 trillion to stabilize the exchange rate of the yuan.