China's Cross-Border Capital Inflows Reach $62.4 Billion in August as SAFE Says Forex Market Operating Steadily

China's cross-border capital flows remained in net inflow in August 2026, with overall stable expectations in the foreign exchange market.

Statistics released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) on September 15 show that, in USD terms, banks purchased 251.8 billion U.S. dollars of foreign exchange and sold 203.3 billion U.S. dollars in August 2026. From January to August 2026, banks had cumulatively purchased 2,083.4 billion U.S. dollars and sold 1,745.5 billion U.S. dollars of foreign exchange.

"Since August, international financial markets have continued to fluctuate, with increased volatility in bond and currency markets in some economies, while China's foreign exchange market has operated steadily," said Li Bin, Deputy Administrator and spokesperson of SAFE, when answering reporters' questions on the foreign exchange market situation in August 2026.

The scale of cross-border receipts and payments continued to grow in August, and cross-border capital remained in net inflow. In August, cross-border receipts and payments of the non-bank sector, including enterprises and individuals, totaled 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars, continuing the relatively rapid growth seen since the beginning of this year. Net cross-border capital inflow reached 62.4 billion U.S. dollars, up 4% month-on-month.

Li Bin said that in terms of the main channels: first, net capital inflows under goods trade remained at a high level; second, increased summer study-abroad and travel activities drove the services trade deficit up 6% month-on-month; third, dividend and profit payments by foreign-invested enterprises narrowed 23% from a seasonal high; fourth, cross-border two-way direct investment remained basically stable.

At the same time, trading volume in the foreign exchange market increased steadily, and market expectations remained generally stable.

Data show that trading volume in the domestic foreign exchange market reached 3.9 trillion U.S. dollars in August, staying at a high level.

Li Bin said the 48.5 billion U.S. dollar surplus in bank foreign exchange settlement was mainly attributable to net inflows of foreign exchange funds. The settlement ratio of enterprises' foreign exchange income stood at 61.5% in the month, 2.7 percentage points lower than the average of the first seven months of this year, indicating that enterprises' willingness to settle and hold foreign exchange was fairly stable and market expectations were generally steady.