Chinese banks see net forex purchase rise in October

BEIJING, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese banks made net foreign exchange purchases of 2.8 billion U.S. dollars in October, the second straight month of surplus, official data showed Thursday.

Chinese lenders bought 128.9 billion U.S. dollars' worth of foreign currency last month and sold 126.1 billion dollars, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said in a statement.

The surplus widened from 300 million U.S. dollars of net purchase in September, when banks bought more forex than they sold for the first time in more than two years.

In the first ten months, Chinese banks bought 1.33 trillion U.S. dollars' worth of foreign currency and sold 1.44 trillion dollars, resulting in a net sales of 110.1 billion dollars, the data showed.