State Administration of Foreign Exchange: From January to March 2025, banks cumulatively completed foreign exchange settlements totaling 37,965 billion yuan.

On April 22, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange announced the bank settlement and sale of foreign exchange and the bank's clients' cross-border receipts and payments data for March 2025. According to the statistical data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, in March 2025, the banks settled 1360.1 billion RMB and sold 1374.2 billion RMB. From January to March 2025, the cumulative settlement by banks was 3796.5 billion RMB, and the cumulative sales were 4210.0 billion RMB. In terms of US dollars, in March 2025, the banks settled 189.6 billion USD and sold 191.6 billion USD. From January to March 2025, the cumulative settlement by banks was 529.0 billion USD, and the cumulative sales were 586.6 billion USD. In March 2025, the bank's clients' cross-border income was 4964.3 billion RMB, and the payments to foreign parties were 4611.4 billion RMB. From January to March 2025, the cumulative cross-border income for the bank's clients was 1354.18 billion RMB, and the cumulative payments to foreign parties were 1317.13 billion RMB. In terms of US dollars, in March 2025, the bank's clients' cross-border income was 69.2 billion USD, and the payments to foreign parties were 64.28 billion USD. From January to March 2025, the cumulative cross-border income for the bank's clients was 1887.1 billion USD, and the cumulative payments to foreign parties were 1835.4 billion USD. Li Bin, Deputy Director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and the spokesperson, answered questions from reporters about the foreign exchange income and expenditure situation in the first quarter of 2025. When asked about the performance of China's foreign exchange market so far this year, Li Bin mentioned that despite the increasing uncertainty and challenges in the external environment, China has been implementing proactive macroeconomic policies and seeing positive results. The Chinese economy has maintained a stable upward trend, and the foreign exchange market has been relatively stable. Li Bin highlighted three main characteristics: 1. The RMB exchange rate has been relatively stable, with a slight appreciation compared to the end of 2024. 2. Cross-border funds have been flowing in a rational and orderly manner, with a slight deficit in March. 3. Major channels of cross-border fund flows have been stable and orderly, with an increase in net inflow of funds from goods trade, more foreign investment in RMB bonds, and stable overall outflow of service trade and foreign enterprise profits. Looking ahead, Li Bin expressed confidence in the future stability of the foreign exchange market. He mentioned that China's strong economic fundamentals and resilience will continue to support the stable operation of the foreign exchange market. Furthermore, China's expansion of opening up to foreign trade and investment will help maintain a basic balance in international payments.To meet the diversified demand, accelerate the cultivation of new foreign trade models, promote the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry, continuously break through key core technologies, enhance foreign trade competitiveness, and make the industrial chain and supply chain more solid. In terms of foreign investment, in February of this year, the country issued the "Action Plan for Stabilizing Foreign Investment by 2025" to provide a good business environment for foreign investment to expand and operate in China. At the same time, China is steadily expanding the opening of the financial market, broadening cross-border investment and financing channels, highlighting the role of the renminbi as a diversified asset allocation, and the attractiveness of the domestic securities market to foreign capital is expected to continue to increase. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange will continue to deepen reforms and opening up in the field of foreign exchange, and will continue to introduce policy measures to support the development of cross-border trade and facilitate cross-border investment and financing, in order to better stabilize foreign trade and foreign investment.Thirdly, the resilience of China's foreign exchange market has been enhanced, and its ability to resist external shocks has increased. In recent years, the market-based mechanism for the formation of the RMB exchange rate has continued to improve, and exchange rate flexibility has increased. Meanwhile, enterprises actively use foreign exchange derivatives to manage exchange rate risks, and more use cross-border RMB settlement to reduce currency mismatch risks. In the first quarter of 2025, the proportion of RMB cross-border receipts and payments under goods trade, as well as the ratio of enterprise foreign exchange hedging, increased compared to the previous year. Enterprises' ability to cope with exchange rate fluctuations has strengthened, and market expectations and transactions are increasingly rational and orderly. Next, the foreign exchange management department will continue to strengthen foreign exchange situation monitoring, maintain exchange rate flexibility, effectively play the role of exchange rate adjustment as a macroeconomic and international balance stabilizer, and continuously enrich the toolbox of macroprudential management of cross-border capital flows. It will resolutely correct pro-cyclical behaviors in the market, prevent excessive exchange rate adjustments, guard against risks of abnormal cross-border capital flows, and maintain national economic and financial security. This article is from the official website of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange; edited by GMTEight: Chen Xiaoyi.