Impact of trade frictions on China's balance of payments controllable: Official

BEIJING - The impact of Sino-US trade frictions on China's balance of international payments is "overall controllable," an official with the country's foreign exchange regulator said Thursday.

There will be no change to the situation that China's international payments under the current account are becoming more balanced and remain in a reasonable range, Wang Chunying, spokesperson for the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said at a press conference.

While the possibility of quarterly fluctuations cannot be ruled out in the short term, steadiness is expected in the longer term, she told reporters.

"On the whole, with trade of goods becoming more balanced, China's international payments under the current account will stay basically stable within a reasonable range," Wang said.

While the country has a deficit in service trade, the deficit growth may slow down in future as demand for overseas travel and study peaks and Chinese service exporters become more competitive amid upgrading efforts, she said.

Returns on outbound investment are expected to increase as the investment structure improves, which will reduce the investment income deficit China runs under the current account, Wang said.

China's international payments under the current account have been basically balanced in recent years, with the current account surplus accounting for 1.3 percent of China's GDP in 2017, according to Wang.