Chinese Banks’ Forex Sales May Indicate Capital Outflows

China’s central bank and commercial lenders sold more foreign currency than they bought for the first month this year in April, indicating capital may have flowed out of the world’s second-biggest economy.

Chinese banks sold a net 60.6 billion yuan ($9.59 billion) of foreign currency in April, according to calculations based on preliminary data released by the People’s Bank of China yesterday. That compares with 124.6 billion yuan of net purchases in March.