beijing dec 15 reuters  china on wednesday granted fresh quotas worth 35 billion under a key outbound investment scheme sending a signal that beijing has more tools available to tame the yuans rapid rise chinas foreign exchange watchdog regularly discloses quotas under the qualified domestic institutional investor qdii scheme at the end of each month but in an unusual midmonth disclosure the state administration of foreign exchange safe said qdii quotas totalled 1575 billion yuan at the end of dec 15 compared with 154 billion yuan at the end of november the quotas increased after five institutions won fresh approvals on wednesday data shows more qdii quota increases demand for the dollar and ease pressure on the yuan to rise part of efforts to slow rapid appreciation of the yuan which hurts chinese exports chinas central bank had announced a hike in the foreign exchange reserve requirement ratio rrr which takes effect on wednesday read more the peoples bank of china also purchased a net 354 billion yuan worth of foreign exchange in november  the most since october 2015 according to reuters calculation  in a move that helps curb yuans rise earlier this week guan tao global chief economist at boc international and a former senior official at safe said that avoiding excess yuan appreciation should be one of chinas priorities in managing market expectations read more the institutions that received new quotas on wednesday include united overseas bank china ltd china southern asset management co china asset management co e fund management co and huataipinbridge investments