Is the PBoC going to stop buying USG bonds? Once again we are hearing very worried noises from various sectors about the possibility of a reduction in Chinese purchases of USG bonds. Here is what an article the South China Morning Post said: China will press ahead with diversification of its US$3.2 trillion in foreign exchange …
Read More…Category: Reserves
What the PBoC cannot do with its reserves
It is a real toss-up as to which generates more bizarre comment in the international press: Beijing’s long-feared dumping of US Treasuries, or the use and value of the PBoC’s central bank reserves. The revelation last week that Chinese holdings of US Treasury obligations fell in December by $34.2 billion, to $755.4 billion, generated a …
Read More…Never short a country with $2 trillion in reserves?
I am traveling in DC, NY and Boston over the next few days, and between meetings and jet-lag it is hard for me to do much on my blog, but I did want to extend a short piece I wrote that was published yesterday in the South China Morning Post. This is because it is …
Read More…New trade and reserve numbers from China
Exports in March dropped a less-than-expected 17.1% from the same time last year – below expectations of 20% and the 21.1% drop for the first two months of 2009. Most of the articles I read in the Chinese and foreign press including, not surprisingly, comments from the customs bureau, hailed this as a sign that …
Read More…Did China experiencing January hot money outflows?
The market (or at least that part of the market that obsesses over balance of payment flows) has been swept with rumors today that foreign exchange reserves were down in January by $30 billion. My experience with these sorts of rumors is that they tend to be fairly accurate, and I suspect they will soon …
Read More…There are monetary echoes from the 1930s too
I have been on the road for the past few (and next ten) days, in part because of Spring Festival, so I haven’t been able to post as much as I normally do, but I was asked to write an article for a Chinese magazine, which I recently finished, on comparisons between today and the …
Read More…Can parochial concerns undermine the global adjustment? They have before
Between the holiday slowdown and the number of writing commitments I have it has been a little too easy to neglect my blog. What free time I have has been spent reading, and I am reading for the third time what I think is one of the best books ever written on financial history – …
Read More…Why is the balance of payments constraint such a mystery?
Fareed Zakaria usually writes very interesting pieces on international policy issues, but it seems to me that there is so much mystery about how the global balance of payments works that he, like so many others, makes simplifying assumptions that don’t take the balance into account, and for that reason just don’t make sense. In …
Read More…Congratulations Mr. Obama, but its tough out there
I always seem to be traveling when exciting things are happening. I just got back this morning from four days in Paris, where I had to go for our annual Board of Directors meeting (and took the opportunity in addition to meet a number of investors and government officials), and so I was in a …
Read More…The last few days of Olympic fever
The stock market had its best day in a long time, with the SSE Composite rising 7.6% on the day to close at 2522. Most of the run-up came in the morning, and several financial sector firms, which were the best performers, had to stop trading when they hit their 10% price-change limit, suggesting that …
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