BEIJING, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- China's commercial banks saw a net forex settlement surplus of 160.9 billion yuan (about 25.26 billion U.S. dollars) in November, the country's forex regulator said Friday.

Forex purchases by banks reached around 1.51 trillion yuan, while sales stood at nearly 1.35 trillion yuan, data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange shows.

In the first 11 months of the year, China's commercial banks reported a net forex settlement surplus of 1.43 trillion yuan.