China maintained a favourable balance of international payments under current and capital accounts in first half of 2006, official statistics show.

The surplus under current account totaled 91.6 billion U.S. dollars, and the surplus under capital and financial accounts amounted to 38.9 billion dollars, according to the balance of international payments statement released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) Friday.

Driven by the "double surplus", China's foreign exchange reserves reached 941.1 billion U.S. dollars by the end of June 2006, up 122.2 billion U.S. dollars from the end of last year.

The SAFE attributed the surge in current account surplus to China's huge cargo trade surplus, which totaled 80 billion dollars in the first half of 2006.

The SAFE said in the statement that it would continue to make effort so as to make Renminbi convertible under capital account and promote the international payment balance.

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