China's foreign exchange reserves increased by US$40 billion in
June, pushing the total figure to US$1.33 trillion, the central
bank said yesterday.
It was a 41.6 percent increase year-on-year, the People's Bank
of China said in a statement on its website.
The rise could mainly be a result of capital influx in
anticipation of a rising yuan and the strong growth in foreign
trade surplus, said Zhao Xijun, a finance professor at Renmin
University of China.
The central parity rate of the yuan hit a new high yesterday,
standing at 7.5712 against the greenback.
The central bank also said household deposits in banks reversed
a declining trend, rising by 167.8 billion yuan (US$22.2 billion)
after a big fall in May.
Analysts said it indicates that people have stopped shifting
their bank savings to the stock market, which has seen drastic
fluctuations recently.
"The growth in deposits, coupled with the decline in the
openings of new stock accounts, points to the changing mood," Zhao
said.
In May, household bank deposits decreased by 278.4 billion yuan
(US$36.8 billion), triggering worries that people may continue to
pull their money out of banks to invest in the capital market.
Yuan-denominated lending rose by 16.48 percent at the end of
June from a year earlier, slightly lower than in May, the statement
said.
Banks extended 2.54 trillion yuan (US$335.5 billion) in new
loans in the first half of this year. New loans in June totaled
451.5 billion yuan (US$59.6 billion), up 14 percent from the same
period last year.
(China Daily July 12, 2007)
