Data released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange yesterday showed that in April 2012, bank generation of foreign exchange was $110 billion 200 million, bank generation sold foreign exchange of US $113 billion 900 million, and bank generation sales deficit was $3 billion 700 million.
This is a deficit in the data for three consecutive months, which is the first time this year’s deficit has occurred.
The foreign exchange settlement on behalf of a bank means the foreign exchange designated bank for the purpose of foreign exchange settlement. Among them, settlement of foreign exchange refers to the sale of foreign exchange to designated foreign exchange banks by foreign exchange owners, which means that designated foreign exchange banks sell foreign exchange to foreign exchange users. The balance formed by foreign exchange settlement is one of the main sources of foreign exchange reserves in China.
In November and December last year, the value of RMB devaluation increased and the trade surplus was narrowed by the end of the year. The data appeared only two deficits since the month of January 2010, $800 million and $15 billion 300 million, respectively.
This year, the bank has a three month surplus on behalf of its clients. In January, the balance of $19 billion 400 million narrowed and the difference between February and March was 4 billion 400 million US dollars and 7 billion 800 million US dollars respectively.
The balance between the sale and sale of foreign exchange on behalf of the bank is consistent with that of the foreign exchange data released by the 15 Central Bank. The central bank data show that the foreign exchange balance of financial institutions in April was 25 trillion and 588 billion 821 million yuan, a decrease of 60 billion 571 million yuan compared with March, the same as the first negative growth since this year.
In this regard, Mei Xinyu, a researcher at the Institute of international trade and economic cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, pointed out that the deficit in the bank’s generation of foreign exchange is affected by two factors. One is that since April, the transaction day of the depreciation of the RMB is more than the trading day of appreciation. The depreciation of the RMB is expected to increase, and the two is the sharp economic fluctuations and goods in the new market. The weakness of the currency delayed the settlement of foreign exchange, or invested part of the renminbi in the US dollar market.
Since the end of March, the RMB exchange rate has fluctuated repeatedly. In March 30th, the intermediate price of RMB to the dollar was 6.2943, and it once appreciated to 6.3072 in April. Although it fell to 6.2787 at the end of the month, it also changed people’s expectations of the exchange rate trend.
In April 2012, domestic banks took over $187 billion in foreign currency and $178 billion 500 million in foreign payments, and the bank paid $8 billion 500 million on behalf of clients.
According to the calculation, the rate of foreign exchange remittance and settlement in April 2012 is 58.9%, the payment of foreign exchange rate is 63.8%, the latter exceeds the former 4.9 percentage points, while in March 2012, the exchange rate is 62%, the payment rate is 62.7%, the latter exceeds the former 0.7 percentage points, that is to say, the exchange rate is higher in March and April than in the exchange rate of exchange rate. And the gap between the two is expanding.