Economic Observer Online
May 31, 2012
By Ouyang Xiaohong (欧阳晓红)
Translated by Tang Xiangyang
Original article: [Chinese]

 
Chinese financial institutions had a net capital inflow of $620 million in the first three months of the year, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said Wednesday.

The institutions had a capital inflow of $660 million, which was only slightly offset by a $40 million outflow, said SAFE, which was publishing such data for the first time.

Chinese financial institutions also spent $1.55 billion on shares of foreign companies.

At the end of 2011, domestic financial institutions had drawn in $68.43 billion of foreign investment and spent $52.66 billion abroad.

At that time, China’s total direct foreign investment stood at $364.2 billion, accounting for only 14.4% of the country’s $4.71 trillion in foreign assets, a large chunk of which are held in U.S. treasuries.

SAFE wants to improve the transparency of foreign exchange and plans to give quarterly figures for the volume of the direct overseas investment by domestic financial institutions.