China revises down Q3 capital account deficits

BEIJING -- China's capital- and financial-account deficits narrowed to 55.6 billion yuan ($9.08 billion), in the third quarter of the year, down from 99.8 billion yuan seen in the April-June period, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) on Friday.

The figure was revised substantially from the preliminary sum of 502 billion yuan released by SAFE in October.

However, China continued to see current account surplus in the July-September period, although edging down slightly to 444.4 billion yuan.

A senior SAFE official said China wanted to achieve a state whereby it recorded a current account surplus and capital account deficit.

China's international reserves fell 400 million yuan in the third quarter, with its foreign exchange (forex) reserve down by 2.6 billion yuan.

As of the first nine months, there was capital and financial surplus of 419.5 billion yuan, current account surplus of 939.7 billion yuan and healthy forex reserves, which were up by 907.3 billion yuan.