China's foreign exchange funds fall in Nov.

BEIJING, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- China's yuan funds outstanding for foreign exchange in domestic financial institutions dropped by 73.6 billion yuan (11.7 billion U.S. dollars) from October to November, the country's central bank said on Friday.

This is the first decline after the figure saw a sharp monthly rise of 130.68 billion yuan in September and a much slower growth of 21.63 billion yuan in October, according to data from the People's Bank of China.

By the end of November, China's total yuan funds outstanding for foreign exchange via financial institutions stood at 25.719 trillion yuan, the data showed.

Analysts said that the sharp monthly decline has surprised the market since November statistics showed a continuous expectation for the yuan to appreciate.

In China's foreign exchange spot market in November, the yuan touched its daily rising limit against the U.S. dollar at some point during 20 of the month's 22 trading days.

The past month also witnessed a decline of 1.921 billion U.S. dollars in China's foreign currency deposits for enterprises and individuals, indicating busy foreign exchange transactions at banks.