BEIJING, Dec. 18 -- China's foreign exchange regulator on Wednesday announced surpluses in both current and capital accounts for the third quarter.

It was the fourth quarter in a row of surpluses in both accounts, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).

The current account surplus, which measures foreign trade in goods and services, came in at 40.4 billion U.S. dollars in the July-Sept. period.

The capital and financial account was 80.5 billion U.S. dollars in the black, including 34.2 billion U.S. dollars of net inflow of direct investment.

International reserve assets also grew by 97 billion U.S. dollars.

SAFE said in the first nine months, the country ran a current account surplus of 138.8 billion U.S. dollars, and 199.2 billion U.S. dollars under the capital and financial account, with international reserve assets adding 300.6 billion U.S. dollars.