Chinese banks' forex settlement deficit expands in December

China continued to see a deficit in its foreign exchange settlement in December, official data showed on Thursday.

Chinese lenders bought 140 billion U.S. dollars worth of foreign currency and sold 230 billion U.S. dollars, resulting in a net sale of 576 billion yuan (89.4 billion U.S. dollars) in December, up from the November deficit of 348 billion yuan, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).

Chinese banks' forex settlement deficit hit 466 billion U.S. dollars in 2015.

SAFE spokesperson Wang Chunying said the situation was the normal result of enterprises optimizing their debt structure in line with market changes, referring to the U.S. Federal Reserves' interest rate hike.

"The risks of cross-border capital flow are controllable on the whole," said Wang.

China's foreign exchange reserves posted the sharpest monthly fall on record in December, falling to 3.33 trillion U.S. dollars, the lowest level in more than three years.

Despite the continuing drop, China's foreign exchange reserves remain ample enough to guard against external shocks, the SAFE said. Endi