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1st LD-Writethru: China's yuan funds for foreign exchange drop in December

Xinhua, January 16, 2017 Adjust font size:

The central bank's yuan funds outstanding for foreign exchange declined again in December as capital outflow continued.

The funds declined 317.8 billion yuan (around 46.1 billion U.S. dollars) in December month on month to 21.94 trillion yuan, data from the People's Bank of China (PBOC) showed Monday.

December was the 14th consecutive month of decline.

As the Chinese currency is not freely convertible under the capital account, the central bank has to purchase foreign currency generated by China's trade surplus and foreign investment in the country, adding funds to the money market.

Such funds are an important indicator of cross-border foreign capital flow and domestic yuan liquidity.

China's forex reserves fell for the sixth straight month in December by 41.1 billion U.S. dollars to 3.01 trillion dollars, as the PBOC used them to balance the forex market and currencies weakened against the dollar.

Despite recent drops, China is still home to the world's largest forex reserve and enjoys forex inflows from its trade surplus and foreign direct investment.

The central parity rate of the renminbi, or the yuan, strengthened 35 basis points to 6.8874 against the U.S. dollar Monday, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System. Endi