Foreign institutional capital investing China approvals accelerate in October

By：Xinhua Update：2016-10-31

BEIJING, Oct. 28 -- The volume of approved foreign institutional capital investing in China's capital market picked up in October thanks to more opening-up policies.

The accumulated volume of the approved Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) program grew by 2.7 billion U.S. dollars in October to reach about 84.4 billion dollars as of Oct. 27. The increase was 258 million dollars from August to September, according to data released by the country's foreign exchange watchdog on Friday.

Meanwhile, the RMB-denominated Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII) program saw its accumulated volume increase by 3.65 billion yuan (about 538 million U.S. dollars) this month, compared with an increase of 998 million yuan from August to September.

The acceleration of the volume of QFII and RQFII programs has been attributed to recent decisions by the central government to further open up its capital market.

China's securities regulator decided in late September to remove asset allocation restrictions on qualified foreign investors to allow them greater freedom to invest.

Previously, China required overseas investors to invest at least 50 percent of their assets into stocks, and their cash ratio should not exceed 20 percent.

To gradually open the capital account, the government introduced the QFII and RQFII programs in 2002 and 2011. They give foreign investors the right to move money into the account to encourage controllable flows.