Chinese banks' forex settlement deficit expands in December

BEIJING - China saw the deficit in its foreign exchange settlement expanded in December, official data showed on Thursday.

Chinese lenders bought $128 billion worth of foreign currency and sold $174.3 billion, resulting in a net sale of 320.3 billion yuan ($46.3 billion) in December, up from the November deficit of $33.4 billion, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).

Chinese banks' forex settlement deficit hit $337.7 billion in 2016, data showed.