Q: According to the latest foreign exchange reserves data disseminated by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, could you brief us on the causes of the changes for July 2019? What would you say about the future trends?

A: By the end of July 2019, China's foreign exchange reserves amounted to USD 3.1037 trillion, up by USD 31 billion or 1% from the beginning of the year.

China's foreign exchange market remained stable in July. In the global financial markets, due to the impacts from global trade situations, central banks' monetary policies in major countries, the prospects of Brexit and geopolitics, the exchange rates of major currencies against the dollar declined and the bond indexes increased. The foreign exchange reserves were affected by a combination of factors, e.g., foreign exchange rate conversions and asset price changes.

In the year to date, despite heightening risks and challenges from global markets, China's economy has grown steadily, with major macroeconomic indicators falling within the reasonable ranges. As a result, China has witnessed stable cross-border capital flows, supply-demand balance in the domestic foreign exchange market and steady foreign exchange reserves with normal monthly fluctuations.

Going forward, the global political and economic environments will remain challenging and trade protectionism and populism will rise, which will pose heavier downside pressure on the world economy and lead to more fluctuating financial markets. But as China's fundamentals stay robust and real economic sectors and financial markets feature strong resilience and potential, China will withstand external shocks and continue to advance reform and opening up in all respects, which will underpin the overall stability of its foreign exchange reserves.