China continued to see a deficit in its foreign exchange settlement in July, indicating forex was flowing out of the country at retail level.

    Chinese banks sold 184.9 billion U.S. dollars' worth of foreign currencies to individuals and institutions, and bought 141.5 billion U.S. dollars from them, resulting in a net sale of 43.4 billion last month.

    The forex settlement deficit came in at 148.8 billion U.S. dollars in first seven months of 2015.

    Forex settlement is one of the main sources of China's forex reserve, which decreased by 42.5 billion U.S. dollars in July, the third monthly drop in a row.