CHINESE banks more than doubled their monthly net purchases of foreign currencies to US$18.5 billion in November, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange disclosed yesterday.
Banks in China bought US$136.6 billion of foreign currencies and sold US$118.1 billion last month. The net foreign currency purchases soared 137 percent from October's US$7.8 billion, SAFE said on its website yesterday.
Foreign currencies bought by banks under capital and financial accounts in November hit the monthly peak of the year at US$15.5 billion while those purchased under the current account totaled US$121.1 billion, SAFE said.
In the foreign exchange forwards market last month, banks made contracts to purchase US$20.7 billion of foreign currencies in future, and to sell US$15.2 billion, resulting in a net purchase of about US$5.4 billion.
However, the banks were net sellers of US$10.6 billion in forwards in the past 11 months, according to SAFE.
Meanwhile, yuan funds outstanding in foreign exchange fell 73.6 billion yuan (US$12 billion) from October to November, the People's Bank of China said two weeks ago, as banks sold less foreign currencies to the central bank last month in response to easing restrictions on foreign exchange holdings and borrowings.
Net foreign exchange purchases totaled US$56.3 billion in the first 11 months, a sharp fall from US$383 billion in the same period a year earlier.
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