China's foreign exchange reserves rose $32.7 billion in the first two months of 2005 to hit $642.6 billion at the end of February, a newspaper said on Monday. If accurately reported, the increase will likely further worry officials trying to stem a flood of speculative capital coming into the country in anticipation of Beijing allowing the yuan to rise in value against the dollar. The newspaper, the semi-official China Business News, said the figure had been contained in materials given at a financial society meeting in Beijing last week.
China's official forex reserve figures are released every quarter by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, which was not immediately available to comment. In 2004 reserves rose more than $200 billion to stand at $609.9 billion at year's end.
In the first two months of 2005, China ran a trade surplus of $11.1 billion and pulled in $8 billion in foreign investment. That left $13.6 billion in other capital inflow, much of which analysts believe was so-called hot money betting on a revaluation.
Comments
Comments are closed.