BEIJING - China's commercial banks saw a net forex settlement deficit of 26.5 billion yuan ($3.8 billion) in August, the country's forex regulator said Friday.

In dollar terms, the deficit narrowed by 29 percent year-on-year, said Wang Chunying, deputy director and spokesperson for the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

In the first eight months, forex purchases by banks reached $1.2852 trillion, while sales came in at $1.213 trillion.

The country's forex market is generally stable with balanced supply and demand, Wang said, noting that multiple favorable factors including a huge market and strong resilience of the Chinese economy offer strong support to the market's stability.

China is forming a new development pattern known as "dual circulation," which takes the domestic market as the mainstay while allowing domestic and foreign markets to boost each other, and the new pattern will be conducive to keeping the country's current account generally within the reasonable range, Wang said.