Company debt repayments responsible for Chinese capital outflows, BIS says

The persistent capital outflows from China evident since mid-2014 were mainly the result of the country's companies paying down their US dollar denominated debts and not of investors dumping their assets in the country, the central bank to central banks said over the weekend.

After examining the record $175bn decline in cross-border capital to China observed between July and September 2015, the Bank of International Settlements found that only $12bn of that amount was linked to official reserves outflows, with the remainder the result of private sector outflows, Bloomberg reported.

Of those prive sector flows, $34bn was the result of companies paying down their foreign currency debt to offshore banks and another $7bn owed to local banks.

There were also $80bn counted as capital exiting China as a result of factors including a decrease in yuan deposits.