China QFII quota hits $99.5b

BEIJING - A total of 287 overseas institutions have received quotas amounting to $99.5 billion under China's Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) program to move money into the country's capital account, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said Wednesday.

As of April 24, the quota in the RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII) program came in at 614.9 billion yuan ($97.6 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 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.

Wednesday's data also showed the quota under the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor program, a scheme that allows domestic investors to access foreign assets, totalled $98.3 billion.