QDII quota extended

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) approved Bank of Communications and China Construction Bank to invest US$1.5 billion and US$2 billion respectively in offshore fixed-income products as part of its Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) program. The move boosts the total allotment under the program by 70% to US$8.3 billion after Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Hong Kong's Bank of East Asia received a combined quota of US$4.8 billion on July 21. In the three years the related Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) program has been running, US$7.25 billion of inbound investments have been authorized. The QDII program is expected to take some pressure off calls to revalue the yuan. But it will have minimal impact on China's foreign exchange reserves, which now exceed US$940 billion and are expected to balloon further in the face of increasing trade surpluses, foreign direct investment and hot money inflows.