Forex reserve rises as trade slump eases

(Xinhua/Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-14 19:55

BEIJING: The slump in China's exports eased in September in a sign global trade is improving and bolstering the government's efforts to sustain an economic recovery.

Exports from the world's third-largest economy in September fell 15.2 percent year-on-year to $115.9 billion, while imports declined by 3.5 percent to $103 billion, the government's customs agency reported Wednesday.

Both declines were improvements over August, when exports contracted 23 percent, and imports fell 17 percent.

Exports in September rose 6.3 percent compared with the previous month, while imports were up 8.3 percent month-on-month, the customs agency said, after adjusting for seasonal factors.

The trade surplus fell to $12.9 billion in September, compared with $15.7 billion in August.

China's trade suffered heavily in late 2008, battered by the global economic crisis, but Beijing's 4 trillion yuan ($596 billion) stimulus package has helped to insulate the country's economy by heavy spending on public works construction and other initiatives.

The government is due to report quarterly economic growth next week.

Forex reserve hits record $2.27 trillion

China's foreign exchange reserve hit a new high of 2.27 trillion U.S. dollars by the end of September, up 19.26 percent year on year, the People's Bank of China, the central bank, said Wednesday.

In the first three quarters, China's foreign exchange reserve increased 326.6 billion U.S. dollars, and the increase was 50.7 billion less than the same period last year, the bank said.

China's foreign exchange reserve added by 43 billion in July, 36.2 billion in August and 61.8 billion U.S. dollars in September.

At the end of June, China's foreign exchange reserve surpassed 2 trillion U.S. dollars for the first time by 131.6 billion.

The market exchange rate of RMB to U.S. dollars was 6.8269 Wednesday.

New loans rise to $75.68 billion in September

China's new yuan-denominated loans in September rose to 516.7 billion yuan ($75.68 billion) from August's 410.4 billion yuan, the People's Bank of China, the central bank, said Wednesday.

New yuan-denominated loans in the first nine months stood at 8.67 trillion yuan, 5.19 trillion yuan more than the same period last year.

China's foreign exchange reserves hit a new high of $2.2726 trillion at the end of September, according to the central bank.

Both figures added to the view that the world's third largest economy was on track for recovery based on a moderately easy monetary policy, said Ding Zhijie, deputy director of the school of banking and finance of the University of International Business and Economics.

China's monthly new loans had slowed from June's high of 1.53 trillion yuan to 355.9 billion yuan in July as a result of bank contracting credit and the central bank's open market operations. The figure rose to 410.4 billion yuan in August and then to September's 516.7 billion yuan.

The broad measure of money supply, M2, which covers cash in circulation and all deposits, was up 29.31 percent from a year earlier to 58.54 trillion yuan at the end of September.

The narrow measure of money supply, M1 (cash in circulation plus current corporate deposits), was up 29.51 percent to 20.17 trillion yuan.