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PBOC: Capital inflows slowing, but no serious outflows

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-23 23:07

China's central bank said Monday that there hadn't been any serious outflow of capital from China, but that capital inflows had slowed.

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Hu Xiaolian, vice governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, made the remarks at a briefing about Chinese President Hu Jintao's participation in the Group of 20 financial summit in Britain scheduled for April 1 to 2.

"Changes have occurred in transnational capital flows as the financial crisis has continued," said Hu, who noted that many emerging markets had experienced serious capital outflows.

"But a serious outflow of capital has not happened in China so far," while the massive inflows seen in recent years have slowed. "Generally speaking, capital is still flowing in, but both its scale and speed have decreased sharply," Hu said.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, during the first two months of 2009, the amount of utilized foreign capital had dropped by more than 26 percent year-on-year and the number of newly-approved foreign investors had fallen by nearly 37 percent.

"We are fully confident about the balance of international payments, because the Chinese economy is still among the most stable in the world, and China is still regarded as one of the best markets by international investors," Hu added.