Chinese banks continued to see net foreign exchange sales in October, but the volume narrowed significantly from that of September in a sign of easing capital outflows.
Chinese lenders bought 128.3 billion U.S. dollars' worth of foreign currency in October and sold 148.4 billion dollars, resulting in a net sale of 20.1 billion dollars, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said in a statement.
The deficit marked a significant drop from September's 109.2 billion dollars.
The banks sold a net 190.9 billion yuan (30 billion U.S. dollars) of foreign exchange on behalf of clients, down from the 729.6 billion yuan seen a month earlier.
In the first ten months, Chinese banks' net foreign exchange sales came in at 321.6 billion dollars.
Despite signs of capital outflows as China's growth is tempered, the SAFE has repeatedly stressed that the phenomenon is normal and does not mean capital flight.
