Chinese banks' foreign exchange settlement up 15%

Chinese banks' foreign exchange settlement increased by 15 percent in 2013 to 11.66 trillion yuan (about 1.88 trillion U.S. dollars), according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) on Friday. The sales of foreign exchange by Chinese banks rose by four percent to 9.99 trillion yuan, said Guan Tao, head of the SAFE's balance of payments department, at a press conference. This resulted in a settlement-sales surplus of 1.68 trillion yuan, up 210 percent from the previous year, highlighting higher pressure on trans-border capital inflows to China, said Guan. The trans-border capital flows saw an uneven pattern in 2013. From January to April, the settlement-sales surplus was 32.1 billion U.S. dollars each month. The monthly surplus decreased to 2.9 billion U.S. dollars from May to August before rising to 32.6 billion U.S. dollars from September to December.