China Bank Foreign Exchange Transactions

About this data

Monthly foreign exchange settlement and sales data (银行结售汇) from January 2010 onwards: the total volume of foreign currency purchased from and sold to customers by the Chinese banking system. This is the DOMESTIC foreign exchange supply and demand indicator most closely monitored by the market and published about two months ahead of the Balance of payments: a positive net purchase balance indicates net foreign exchange inflows, placing upward pressure on the renminbi, while prolonged negative balances signal capital outflows and typically coincide with declining Foreign exchange reserves. The table separates proprietary bank transactions from transactions conducted on behalf of customers, with customer transactions further disaggregated by transaction purpose (goods, services, income, direct investment, and portfolio investment). The final group of rows covers FORWARD transactions—newly signed contracts, settlements, renewals, end-of-period outstanding balances, and net option positions: these indicate the direction in which businesses are betting on the Exchange rate before actual cash flows materialize. Verification check: the net balance equals purchases minus sales, and purchases equal proprietary transactions plus transactions on behalf of customers (matching across all 198 months). Notably, the October 2022 source data contains an internal inconsistency: the sum of the current account and capital account component lines under 'transactions on behalf of customer' equals the total block volume rather than the customer transaction line, with a discrepancy exactly equal to the proprietary portion—the figures are preserved as originally published. Source: State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) of China.