China says FX reserves ample, has plan to deal with outflows
China's foreign exchange regulator said on Thursday the country's forex reserves were ample and it has plans to deal with cross-border capital flows, even as bank forex sales in December climbed to their highest in nearly a year.
"In the future, we believe China's foreign exchange reserves have conditions to fluctuate up or down within a reasonable range," State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) spokeswoman Wang Chunying said at a news briefing.
China's foreign currency reserves, by far the world's largest, fell almost $330 billion in 2016 to end the year at just over $3 trillion as authorities struggled to stem capital outflows and shore up the yuan.
Chinese banks' net sales of foreign currency rose in December to their highest since January 2016, according to SAFE data released on Thursday, indicating capital outflows remained strong as the yuan hit lows not seen in eight years. Commercial banks' net sales of foreign currency totalled $46.3 billion in December, compared with net sales of $33.4 billion in November, data showed. Net sales were $54.4 billion in January 2016.
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