BEIJING - Chinese banks bought more foreign currency than they sold in March, the eighth consecutive month of net foreign exchange purchases, China's forex regulator said Thursday.

Chinese lenders bought 167.8 billion US dollars' worth of foreign currency in March and sold 127.6 billion US dollars, resulting in a net buy of 40.2 billion US dollars, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said in a statement.

The run of net forex purchases began in August last year, but the surplus has been narrowing, down from 45.7 billion US dollars in February and 73.3 billion US dollars in January.

"Overall, China is maintaining cross-border capital inflows but the trend has been easing recently," said Guan Tao, head of the SAFE's Balance of Payments Department.

Zhong Zhengsheng, macroeconomic researcher with Guosen Securities, pointed out that due to expectation of yuan depreciation, clients are proving more willing to hold foreign assets.

In the first three months of 2014, Chinese banks bought 516.8 billion US dollars in foreign currency and sold 357.5 billion US dollars, bringing the net purchase volume to 159.2 billion US dollars, according to the SAFE statement.