¡¡¡¡BEIJING, Oct. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- Statistics released Thursday by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) show that China maintained a healthy balance of international payments in the first half of this year.

¡¡¡¡According to the statistics, in the first half year, China's current account in international payments achieved a surplus of 13.63 billion US dollars.

¡¡¡¡In line with international accounting practices, China's exportvolume was 143.341 billion dollars and import volume was 122.621 billion dollars, with a surplus of 20.72 billion dollars during the period. Revenue from services was 18.099 billion dollars, while service expenditures reached 22.425 billion dollars, a deficit of 4.326 billion dollars.

¡¡¡¡During the first half of the year, China's capital and financial accounts achieved a surplus of 12.247 billion dollars. Foreign direct investment totaled 24.58 billion dollars, remainingas the major source of capital influx to China.

¡¡¡¡Driven by the overall surplus in international payments, China's international reserve assets grew steadily. In the first six months of this year, international reserves increased 31.147 billion dollars, of which foreign exchange reserves increased 30.599 billion dollars to reach 242.763 billion dollars.

¡¡¡¡The exchange rate of Renminbi continued to remain stable. Enditem