China QFII quota at $111.38b

BEIJING - A total of 292 overseas institutions have received quotas amounting to about $111.38 billion under China's Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) program to move money into the country's capital account, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

As of Aug 30, the quota in the RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII) program came in at 693.3 billion yuan ($97.8 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 control capital flows in and out of the country.

To gradually open the capital account, the government introduced the QFII and RQFII programs in 2003 and 2011, respectively. They give foreign investors the right to move money into the account to encourage controlled flows.

The Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor program, a scheme that allows domestic investors to access foreign assets, totalled $104 billion.