Shanghai:The quota in the RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII) program came in at 640.2 billion yuan (about 93.2 billion US dollars) as of September 29, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).
The amount was up 12.7 billion yuan from the previous month, said SAFE. 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, South Korea, Germany, Qatar, Canada, Australia and Luxembourg.
