China revised up its capital and financial account surplus to US$15.2 billion in the third quarter of this year, the top foreign exchange regulator said.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange has revised the figure upwards by almost US$10 billion from a US$5.7 billion it reported in November, it said on its website yesterday, without disclosing the reason for the revision.

After the revision, China's capital and financial account surplus dropped 65 percent year on year.

China's current account surplus for the third quarter remained at US$102.3 billion, up 103 percent from a year ago.

China's trade surplus in goods was US$81.4 billion while its services trade surplus was US$3.9 billion.

Lu Zhengwei, an Industrial Bank senior economist, said the revised foreign direct investment is the main reason for the revision in the capital and financial accounts.

"The foreign direct investment data could fluctuated wildly as record data showed," he said.

Meanwhile, economists said a more valuable yuan is widely expected in 2011, which could attract more speculative capital flow.

Stephen Green, research head at Standard Chartered Bank, said he expected the yuan to appreciate 6 percent in 2011.

Lu expected "more interest-rate increases, a more valuable currency and the US's latest quantitative easing could all increase pressure for inflow of hot money next year."

China is the world's biggest forex reserve holder with US$2.65 trillion at the end of September.