China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) achieved, through effective work in 2024, multiple results, including a record high of cross-order receipts and payments by non-banking sectors, an official said on Tuesday.
Deputy head Li Bin briefed the media on SAFE's work for serving China's economic growth at a press conference of the State Council Information Office in Beijing.
"In 2024, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange continued to advance high-standard opening-up in the forex sector and reforms on investment and financing facilitation in cross-border trade. We lifted the requirement of SAFE approval on the registration of directory for enterprises involved in trade-related forex receipts and payments. After the reform, banks are directly handling the directory registration, which can be completed within 15 minutes for each enterprise. More than 100,000 enterprises have benefited from the policy," said Li.
"SAFE actively supported the development of new trade forms in 2024, and facilitated cross-border e-commerce enterprises' forex receipts and payments worth around 26 billion U.S. dollars. We further promoted the convenience of cross-border financing, and relevant policies covered 1.3 million innovative sci-tech enterprises. We also deepened the construction of cross-border financial service platforms, which have assisted more than 100,000 enterprises in getting a total fund of over 380 billion U.S. dollars, and helped relevant companies make forex payments worth nearly 2 trillion U.S. dollars," said the official.
SAFE also optimized and expanded piloting of the integrated capital pool for multinational corporations' domestic and foreign currencies, so as to help relevant multinational corporations better pool and use their funds. The policy has benefited more than 18,000 enterprises, said the official.
He said the foreign exchange management was effective in 2024, and resulted in more active cross-border trade and investment.
"The cross-border receipts and payments by non-banking sectors including enterprises and individuals reached 14.3 trillion U.S. dollars last year, up 14.6 percent from 2023, hitting a record high. The turnover on the domestic renminbi foreign exchange market totaled 41 trillion U.S. dollars, growing by 14.8 percent from 2023. China maintained a basic equilibrium in the balance of payments. China's current account surplus stood at 241.3 billion U.S. dollars in the first three quarters of 2024, and the current account surplus to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio stood at 1.8 percent during the period, remaining within a reasonable range recognized internationally," said the official.
Forex administration effectively supports China's economic growth in 2024: official
