BEIJING, Oct. 20 -- China's commercial banks saw a net forex settlement deficit of 96.4 billion yuan (about 13.43 billion U.S. dollars) in September, official data showed on Friday.

In yuan terms, forex purchases by banks stood at 1.27 trillion yuan, while sales reached about 1.37 trillion yuan, data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed.

During the first nine months, forex purchases by banks came in at 11.71 trillion yuan, and sales totaled about 11.97 trillion yuan.