China capital outflows not strange: central bank

BEIJING - China's central bank officials said Saturday that the recent capital outflows are within expectation and not strange.

"It should be noted that we had considerable capital inflows in the past years... Rising outflows in some period are not strange at all," said Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), at a press conference on the sidelines of the annual parliamentary session.

He said that China's financial market is back on track after fluctuations, citing the prospect of a growth rate of 6.5 to 7 percent this year.

"I dare not say whether China will experience some emergencies, but currently our capital flows are expected to quickly become calm and normal," Zhou said.

Yi Gang, vice governor of PBOC, cited that in 2013 most of the capital flows were normal trade surplus on the current account and also included some foreign direct investment.

In general, fluctuations of inflows and outflows are normal and within expectations, Yi said.

Most of the recent capital outflows went to enterprises, financial institutions and residential accounts. For instance, US dollars deposit on residential and enterprises accounts in China increased by tens of billions in 2015, he said.

Other reasons behind the capital outflows are the increased holding of US dollars by financial institutions to cope with financial uncertainties, he added.