China has been experiencing capital outflows or the movement of assets out of the country, but that should not be seen as capital flight, a senior foreign exchange official said Thursday.
"Currently China is indeed facing capital outflows, but it is within expectations, and cannot be simply equated to illegal or secretive capital flight," Guan Tao, head of the department of international payments at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), told a press conference in Beijing.
Chinese banks sold $91.4 billion in spot foreign exchange settlements in the first quarter of 2015, almost twice as much as the $46.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to data released Thursday by SAFE.
"The expansion was caused by China's narrowing trade surplus, slowdown in foreign direct investment and speculative capital, fast-growing outbound direct investment, and market expectations of a strong US dollar," Xu Bo, an analyst at the Bank of Communications, told the Global Times Thursday.
Separate data released Tuesday by SAFE also showed the central bank and financial institutions sold 156.5 billion yuan ($25.3 billion) worth of foreign exchange in March, compared to a purchase of 42.2 billion yuan in February.
This data suggested renewed capital outflows from China, analysts said.
China has witnessed net capital outflows since the third quarter of 2014, after the US announced plans to tighten money supply last year.
Guan said the US dollar's increasing strength and market expectations of the US Federal Reserve's move to raise interest rates has prompted capital outflows from China so far this year, but that the impact is limited.
He also played down some foreign media reports that China's anti-corruption campaign might spur a growing number of wealthy Chinese to send their money overseas.
"Most of the transactions are legitimate investments," he said. He added that the capital outflows are partly caused by Chinese companies having to settle their overseas foreign exchange debt.
The yuan lost 2.5 percent against the US dollar in 2014. But Guan said the Chinese government does not want to see a further depreciation in the yuan, because that would affect adjustment to the domestic economic structure.
Tan Yaling, head of the China Forex Investment Research Institute, said the increased capital outflows were also caused by Chinese enterprises' global expansion and China's economic slowdown.
"On the one hand, Chinese companies have been increasingly eager to invest overseas and go global," she told the Global Times Thursday. "On the other hand, China's economic slowdown has reduced the country's appeal to some foreign investors."
Some multinationals such as US software giant Microsoft and Japan's watchmaker Citizen closed their China-based plants in the first quarter. But Shen Danyang, spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, denied that the closures are widespread.
"Only a few foreign companies left China because they could not adjust to China's new normal such as rising labor costs and the economic slowdown," Shen told reporters at a press conference on April 16.
SAFE's Guan said he expects China's cross-border capital flows to remain volatile amid a complex global liquidity environment, and said capital outflows might continue this year. But he noted that the authority will not adopt new measures to control capital outflows.
The central bank can offset the impact of capital outflows by cutting interest rates or banks' reserve requirements to ensure the economy has an ample supply of yuan, Guan said. China lowered the banks' reserve requirement ratio by 1 percentage point on Monday, and analysts believe there will be more cuts if capital outflows continue.
SAFE will closely monitor cross-border capital flows, adjust temporary measures adopted earlier to curb capital inflows, and prepare policy tools to prevent potential risks, Guan said.
Guan also said that China's foreign exchange management agency will also help in implementing the "One Belt and One Road" initiative. For instance, China's foreign exchange reserves contributed 65 percent to the $10 billion Silk Road Fund launched last year.
"The initiative is a two-way opening-up strategy," he said. "China will support domestic companies increase overseas investment, and also encourage foreign investment in China."
