China's banks saw a net forex settlement surplus of 88.4 billion yuan (13.6 billion U.S. dollars) in August, the country's forex regulator said Friday.

Forex purchases by banks exceeded 1.35 trillion yuan, while sales reached nearly 1.27 trillion yuan, data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed.

In the first eight months of the year, China's banks reported a net forex settlement surplus of about 1.03 trillion yuan.