Chinese regulator plays down 'hot money' levels

The level of "hot money" coming into China did not increase significantly in 2010, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), the Financial Times reported. There was a net inflow of US$35.5 billion in illegal speculative capital last year, compared to an annual average of US$28.9 billion over the last decade. This is equivalent to roughly 9% of the increase in China’s foreign exchange reserves, and insignificant in terms of the economy as a whole. The growth of the country’s foreign exchange reserves, which now stand at US$2.85 trillion, had led to speculation that foreign capital was finding its way into China’s property and stock markets. "The argument that cross-border capital flows are driving domestic stock market performance lacks evidence in the data," said SAFE. This contradicts claims by Beijing that inflationary pressures in the Chinese economy are in part due to excess liquidity in the international financial system caused by quantitative easing in the US.