The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) announced Saturday that the inter-bank foreign exchange market under the China Foreign Exchange Center would open for the extended hours of 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with no break at noon.
A spokesman for the SAFE said that this move was motivated by the new situation of financial opening after China's entry into the World Trade Organization, and aimed to steadily promote the reform on China's forex market operational mechanism.
He said that the extension of trading time was of great significance to China's forex market development as it realized full-day trading of the RMB to the US dollar, Japanese yen, euro and HK dollar, and provided market members with longer trading time and more convenience in forex capital clearing, and invigorated trading in the inter-bank forex market.
The market was formerly open for trading from 9:30 a.m. to 11: 00 a.m.
(Xinhua News Agency February 9, 2003)
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