(ATF) China’s foreign exchange reserves expanded to US$3.1017 trillion at the end of May, from $3.0915 trillion at the end of April.
And China’s gold reserves stood at 62.64 million ounces, according to the People’s Bank of China (PBoC). The total value of gold reserves reached about $108.29 billion, up from $106.67 billion a month ago.
China’s forex market operated steadily last month, with demand and supply basically balanced, said Wang Chunying, a spokesperson for the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.
Wang attributed the pick-up in May to multiple factors including exchange rates and changes in asset prices.
Despite a complex external economic environment amid the Covid-19 pandemic, China’s economy had seen a gradual restoration back to normal, Wang said, and it had resilience, potential and the room to manoeuvre and provide solid foundations for the stability of forex reserves.
With the implementation of proactive fiscal policies and monetary policy tools directly targeting the real economy, the sound long-term outlook of the country’s economy would support the stability of the forex scale, Wen Bin, chief analyst at China Minsheng Bank, said.
Financial institutions
Meanwhile, total assets of China’s financial institutions reached 332.94 trillion yuan at the end of the first quarter, up 9.8% from the same period last year, the PBoC said. Their total liabilities rose 9.5% to 302.59 trillion yuan.
Specifically, banking institutions’ total assets grew 9.5% to 302.39 trillion yuan, while their total liabilities gained 9.1% to 276.91 trillion yuan.
Securities institutions’ total assets increased by 13.5% to 8.83 trillion yuan. Their total liabilities increased by 15.6% to 6.46 trillion yuan.
Insurance institutions’ total assets rose by 13.7% to 21.72 trillion yuan, while their total liabilities reached 19.22 trillion yuan, up 14.1% year on year.
