BEIJING, May 18 (Xinhua) -- China's central bank said on Wednesday that the funds outstanding for foreign exchange totaled 310.72 billion yuan (47.08 billion U.S. dollars) in April, less than the 407.9 billion billion yuan in March.

The total balance of the funds stood at 24 trillion yuan at the end of April, the People's Bank of China said.

This meant that the central bank bought 310.72 billion yuan worth of foreign exchange from commercial banks last month to offset the same amount of foreign exchange inflow which comprised of trade surplus and overseas speculative money, as Renminbi is inconvertible under the capital account.