China QFII quota edges up to $101b

2018-12-31
Xinhua

BEIJING — China’s dollar-denominated Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) program saw its total quota rise to $101.056 billion as of the end of December, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

As of the end of December, the quota in the RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII) program came in at 646.672 billion yuan (about $94 billion).

China’s currency, the yuan, is convertible for trade purposes under the current account, while the capital account, which covers portfolio investment and borrowing, is largely run by the state in an effort to manage capital flows in and out of the country.

The QFII and RQFII programs, introduced in 2003 and 2011 respectively, allow overseas institutional investors to move money into China’s capital account to encourage controlled flows.

The RQFII program is currently open to countries and regions including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Britain, Singapore, France, the Republic of Korea, Germany, Qatar, Canada, Australia and Luxembourg.

The Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor program (QDII), a scheme that allows domestic investors to access overseas assets, remained at $103.233 billion. No new quotas have been granted for six consecutive months.