Asian Development Bank noted that the rapid growth in China’s foreign exchange reserves was led by the rising trade surplus and by the confidence of overseas investors as they buy up China’s assets. China’s trade surplus in the first half of 2009 was US$96.94 billion.
The stock and property markets remained bullish. China’s shares have rallied 70% from the beginning of the year. Property sales surged 53% to reach 1.58 trillion Yuan (US$231.3 million) as investors took advantage of low interest rates.
China’s property and equity markets are closely watched by international speculative fund holders. It is believed that the bullish property and equity markets are among the reasons contributing to the surge in China’s foreign exchange reserves.