China maintained favourable balance of payments in current accounts and capital accounts in the first half of 2005, official statistics showed Monday.

The surplus under current accounts totaled 67.2 billion US dollars, up 59.79 billion dollars over the same period of 2004, according to the balance of payments statement released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).

Service accounts had a deficit of 3.93 billion dollars, income accounts had a surplus of 4.87 billion dollars, and current transfers had a surplus of 12 billion dollars, SAFE reported.

The surplus under capital and financial accounts amounted to 38.29 billion dollars, down by 28.5 billion dollars from the same period of 2004. Direct investment saw a surplus of 22.47 billion dollars, and securities investment incurred a deficit of 966 million dollars.

Driven by the "double surplus", China's international reserves reached 769 billion US dollars by the end of September, up 159.1 billion dollars from the beginning of the year, and 47.8 billion dollars more than the same period of last year.

Today's closing price of US dollar against RMB was 1 to 8.0845, according to China's central bank.

Source: Xinhua