China QFII quota edges up to $100.56b

BEIJING - Some 286 overseas institutions have received quotas amounting to $100.56 billion in the end of November under China's Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) program, up $300 million from the end of October, official data showed.

As of the end of November, the quota in the RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII) program came in at 642.67 billion yuan ($ 92.56 billion), according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

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, a scheme that allows domestic investors to access overseas assets, remained at $103.2 billion. No new quotas have been granted for five months in a row.