China's capital account deficit continued to widen in the third quarter of 2015 while the country's reserve assets dropped sharply, official figures showed on Wednesday.
Deficit under the capital and financial account rose to 63.4 billion U.S. dollars for the three months ending in September, up from 40.6 billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter, according to preliminary statistics released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).
Reserve assets, most of which are foreign exchange reserves, decreased 160.5 billion U.S. dollars, compared with an increase of 13.1 billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter.
China started to post deficits on its capital and financial account in the second quarter of 2014 due to rapid increases in overseas investment and speculation of depreciation of the yuan.
On Aug. 11 this year, the central bank decided to let the market have a greater say in forming the yuan's central parity rate against the U.S. dollar, which led to a depreciation of more than 4 percent in August.
China reported a current account surplus of 63.4 billion U.S. dollars in the third quarter, narrowing from 73 billion U.S. dollars posted in the second quarter, SAFE data showed.
The country saw a 212 billion-U.S. dollar current account surplus for the first three quarters combined and a deficit of 121.9 billion U.S. dollars on the capital and financial account during that period.
