(Adds details, official comment) BEIJING, May 7 - China's foreign exchange reserves fell by $68 billion in April, the biggest drop in f
(Adds details, official comment)
BEIJING, May 7 – China’s foreign exchange reserves fell by
$68 billion in April, the biggest drop in five and half years,
official data showed on Saturday, as the dollar climbed while
foreign investors dumped Chinese stocks amid worries about the
slowing economy.
The country’s foreign exchange reserves – the world’s
largest – fell to $3.12 trillion last month from $3.188 trillion
in March, the biggest monthly drop since November 2016.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the reserves to fall
to $3.133 trillion in April.
The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said in
a statement that the 2% drop in April reserves from March mainly
reflected valuation effect as the dollar gained against other
major currencies, and changes of global asset prices.
“In April 2022, China’s cross-border funds generally
continued the trend of net inflows, and the supply and demand in
the domestic foreign exchange market remained basically
balanced,” the SAFE said.
The yuan fell 4% against the dollar in April,
while the dollar rose 5% in April against a basket of other
major currencies.
Overseas investors extended their selling of Chinese shares
into April on mounting worries about the impact of prolonged
COVID-19 lockdowns and the fallout of the Ukraine-Russia war.
China’s foreign exchange reserves dropped $130 billion in
the first four months, the official data showed. They had
climbed $33.6 billion in 2021.
China held 62.64 million fine troy ounces of gold at the end
of April, unchanged a month earlier. The value of China’s gold
reserves fell to $119.73 billion at the end of April from
$121.66 billion at the end of March.
(Reporting by Brenda Goh and Kevin Yao; Editing by Michael
Perry and William Mallard)
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