China FX turnover rebounds in September 2026, near March high
China’s RMB-against-foreign-currency turnover rose to 43,498.55 in USD 100 million units in September 2026. Spot trading led the monthly increase, while total activity approached March’s high.
China’s RMB-against-foreign-currency market recorded September 2026 turnover of 43,498.55 in USD 100 million units, up from 38,726.56 in August, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE). The rebound brought monthly activity close to March’s level, with spot trading accounting for the largest part of the increase across instruments.
September’s total was the second-highest monthly reading between January 2022 and September 2026, behind March 2026’s 43,587.18. It also exceeded July’s elevated reading and September 2025’s 37,808.28. Those comparisons place the latest observation near the upper end of the period’s range, rather than establishing an uninterrupted rise: August had interrupted the increases recorded in June and July. These are monthly totals, not trading-day-adjusted measures of activity.
Spot leads the increase, swaps retain the largest role
Spot turnover rose to 14,552.64 from 11,290.58 in August, while combined FX and currency swap turnover increased more modestly, to 24,980.41 from 24,101.02. Forwards and options also increased. The breadth of the rise therefore extended beyond spot, but the change in instrument mix matters: swaps remained the largest category even as spot provided the strongest contribution to the monthly expansion.
The clearest market-structure signal is stronger transaction activity alongside the continuing dominance of swaps, rather than evidence of a directional currency bet. The larger spot contribution shows that September’s expansion was not simply an increase in swap turnover. Greater transaction volume can be consistent with more active intermediation, but it does not by itself demonstrate better execution liquidity or narrower trading costs. Nor does turnover establish net capital inflows or exchange-rate pressure: it measures transactions, not the direction of money moving across borders.
Interbank turnover remained substantially larger than bank-to-customer activity, and both increased from August. These segments partition the total rather than adding another layer of activity. SAFE measures bank-to-customer turnover as customers’ foreign-currency purchases plus sales, while interbank turnover is single-sided. The customer segment is therefore a gross trading measure, not a retail-only indicator or a net measure of customer demand.
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