EURO DEBUTED EXCESS OF FOREX SUPPLY OVER DEMAND DECREASED SLIGHTLY
There were total 24 sessions of trade in April 2002, which ended up with 5.024 billion accumulatively in US dollar terms. The average daily turnover was US$209 million, down 1.78 per cent compared with last month but up 19.72 per cent when compared with the same period last year.
The average daily turnover of the HKD and JPY rose compared with last month while that of the USD declined. EUR/RMB trading was introduced for the first time this month. The average daily turnover of the HKD, USD and JPY increased respectively when compared with the same period of last year.
USD crested and dropped, HKD went down, JPY climbed steadily and EUR rose
The USD went up and then declined in April 2002. The weighted average price of the USD leaped to 8.2773 from 8.2772 at the beginning of this month and then went down. After April 9, the USD rushed up gradually and leaped to 8.2775 on April 19, the highest price of this month. Standing on the high position of 8.2772 for several days, the weighted average price ended up with 8.2773, which was 1 b.p. lower than that of last month.
The HKD went down and the weighted average price of the HKD at the beginning of this month was 1.0608. Though the price of the HKD tried to climb to 1.0607 in the middle of this month, it remained at 1.0606 until the end of this month, (except for one day of declining), which was 1 b.p. lower than that of last month.
Because the price of the JPY in international market went up, the JPY rose continuously, which has been a seldom occurrence for a long time. The weighted average price of JPY was 6.2102 at the beginning of this month, it went up to 6.4709, the highest price of this month, and ended up at 6.4596, which was 2346 bps higher than that of last month.
The turnover of the EUR, a new trading instrument in the market, was the smallest among these four currencies and its price increased stepwise. At the beginning of this month, the weighted average price of Euro was 7.2244. The growing trend of the EUR was not affected by the several no-trading days in this month, and ended up at 7.4808, the highest weighted average price of this month.
The surplus of forex
supply over demand deceased moderately
Compared with that of last month, daily supply and demand in the forex market both went down in April. The accumulative surplus of supply over demand increased by US$ 305 million, compared with last month. The daily surplus decreased by 4.04 per cent compared with last month and increased by 154.4 per cent compared with the same period of last year.
The domestic economy in April 2002, grew steadily within conservative expectations. Foreign trade continued to be in surplus and trading in the forex market was brisk. During the reversion trend of the forex rate of JPY against USD in the international market the rate of RMB kept stable.
GDP in the first quarter of 2002 was 2.102 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.6 per cent over the same period of last year. Though the rate was 0.5 per cent slower than the same period of last year, it was 0.3 per cent faster than the whole of last year.
The total amount of exports and imports in the first quarter of this year was US$ 122.1 billion, an increase of 7.7 per cent over the same period last year. Exports reached US$ 64.66 billion an increase of 9.9 per cent over last year; and the import was US$ 57.4 billion, an increase of 5.2 per cent year-on-year. The trade surplus was US$ 7.3 billion, US$ 3 billion more than the same period of last year.
The utilized foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first quarter increased to US$10.1 billion, an increase of 27.5 per over the same period last year; and the contracted FDI was US$ 17.855 billion, 11.43 per cent higher than that of the same period last year.
The market share of EUR trading has been very small since its official debut on April 1. Trading of EUR was dull, not only because domestic foreign trade enterprises generally did not settle in Euro when trading with European countries, but also because some Euro traders did not engage in active trading.
(by Wu Jingjing)