China Foreign Reserves Rebound on Yuan Gains, Capital Curbs

(Bloomberg) -- China's foreign-currency holdings resumed gains last month as the government kept capital curbs in place and the yuan capped its best quarter in a decade.

Reserves rose $8.34 billion to $3.143 trillion in March from the previous month, the People's Bank of China said Sunday. That was slightly below the $3.146 trillion estimate in Bloomberg's survey of economists.

The March figure marks a turnaround after falling in February for the first time in 13 months. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange expects the country's foreign reserves will remain stable.

“China's foreign exchange reserve rose amid a combination of factors in March,” SAFE said in a statement. “The supply and demand of foreign exchange has been relatively stable while the foreign-exchange market continues to be balanced. Risk aversion rose in international markets while non-dollar currencies have strengthened against the dollar.”

China's stockpile, the world's largest, increased last year for the first time since 2014 as robust economic growth boosted confidence in the yuan and trade remained strong. Still, rising trade tension with the U.S. may lead to slower growth of the holdings, and even renew capital outflow pressure on emerging-market economies including China.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Yinan Zhao in Beijing at yzhao300@bloomberg.net, Miao Han in Beijing at mhan22@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey Black at jblack25@bloomberg.net, John McCluskey, Sam Nagarajan

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.

With assistance from Yinan Zhao, Miao Han