Banks' November forex surplus hits $45.3b

BEIJING -- The surplus of Chinese banks' foreign exchange purchases over sales in client transactions in November totaled $45.3 billion, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said Friday.

Chinese banks' November foreign exchange surplus was the second highest monthly surplus of the year, behind October's $57.6 billion.

In November, Chinese institutional and individual clients sold $129.7 billion of foreign exchange to banks while purchasing $84.4 billion, a statement on the SAFE website said.

The figure contributed partly to changes in China's foreign exchange reserves but did not include banks' own foreign exchange transactions and interbank transactions.

China's foreign exchange reserves rose 16.5 percent year on year in the third quarter to $2.6483 trillion.

The SAFE started releasing monthly and quarterly data on bank foreign exchange transactions this year.

In 2009, the annual surplus fell 42 percent to $263.5 billion, according to SAFE data released in March.

At the end of June, China's foreign exchange reserves had risen 15.1 percent year on year to $2.4543 trillion.