Yuan remains stable as forex trade surges
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-04-10 09:15

The exchange rate of the Chinese renmenbi yuan remained stable against the greenback as daily transactions surged 55.5 percent year-on-year on China's national interbank foreign exchange market in the first quarter of this year.

Total transactions of the four hard currencies quoted on China' s forex market amounted to US$63.182 billion, averaging US$1.053 billion on each of the 60 trading days, according to latest statistics released by China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS).

The daily transaction was down 21.7 percent compared with the previous quarter but increased 55.5 percent over the same period of last year.

The total transactions included US$61.89 billion, HK$6.898 billion, 33.384 billion yen and 67 million euros. Transactions in US dollars, Hong Kong dollars and euros were up 55.8 percent, 67.4 percent and 47.4 percent respectively over the previous year, while trade in yen was down 3.3 percent.

March transactions in the four currencies were US$21.337 billion -- US$928 million per day.

Yuan remained stable against the US dollar in the first quarter. The daily weighted average rate of the greenback was quoted at 8.2765 yuan at the beginning of the year and kept unchanged throughout the three months.

The Hong Kong dollar was quoted at 1.0631 yuan in early January and slid to 1.0608 yuan at the end of March.

The yen weakened amid fluctuations. It started at 100 yen for 8.0535 yuan at the beginning of the first quarter and ended at 7.7149 yuan.

The exchange rate for euro was 11.1474 yuan at the start of January, lowered to 10.5620 yuan and then rebounded slightly to end the first quarter at 10.6918 yuan.

In the first quarter, China's 127 interbank foreign currency intermediary services completed 24 transactions worth US$446 million, according to CFETS.

Officially founded in Shanghai in April 1994, CFETS has been China's first national foreign exchange trading system since 1949. It is a non-profit public institution which is independent in its accounting but subject to the leadership of the head office of the People's Bank of China.

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