China debt holdings slashed by over 100 billion yuan in May, Beijing eager to ‘safeguard’ currency

Foreign investors sold 110 billion (US$16.37 billion) net of China’s government debt in May
Total overall holdings fell to 3.66 trillion yuan after investors cut their holdings for the fourth consecutive month

Banking & finance

Amanda Lee

Published: 5:30pm, 16 Jun 2022

Why you can trust SCMP

Corrected [11:46pm, 16 Jun, 2022]

[11:46pm, 16 Jun, 2022]
This story has been corrected throughout to reflect the figure sold is 110 billion yuan and not 1 trillion yuan as previously stated.

We are part of the Trust Project What is it?

Foreign investors slashed their holdings of Chinese government bonds for the fourth consecutive month in May amid growing monetary policy divergence between its central bank and the US Federal Reserve that could further weaken the yuan.

Foreign investors sold 110 billion yuan (US$16.37 billion) net of China’s government debt last month, cutting their total overall holdings to 3.66 trillion yuan, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said on Wednesday.

China suffered an “unprecedented” sell-off in late February after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with an estimated US$30.4 billion flowing out of its bond market in February and March, according to the International Institute of Finance (IIF).

The IIF said in a report last week that it was too soon to make any definitive judgment whether global markets had become wary of sanction risks over Chinese assets after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

02:09

US Fed raises interest rates by 0.75 percentage point, the biggest hike since 1994

The PBOC data showed that in May, international investors held a total of 2.38 trillion yuan worth of Chinese government bonds and 90 billion yuan worth of bonds issued by China’s policy banks, or quasi-sovereign debt because the banks have the implicit support of the government.

The sell-off comes as the world’s two largest economies have gone in opposite directions in their monetary policies, which could drive further fund outflows from yuan-denominated debt.

While the PBOC left the benchmark one-year medium-term lending facility rate unchanged earlier on Wednesday, in contrast, the US Federal Reserve later approved the largest rate increase in more than a quarter of a century to stem a surge in inflation.

The increase of 0.75 percentage points announced by the US Federal Reserve lifted the rate to a range of between 1.5 per cent and 1.75 per cent.

The PBOC is cognisant of the risks for the yuan from the growing yield divergence between US dollar and yuan rates. As such, it may leave rates unchanged or only implement modest cuts in order to safeguard the yuan

Commerzbank

“Inflation in China is running below the average for the past 11 years of 2.3 per cent, but in the US, it is above 8 per cent and at a 40-year high,” Commerzbank said on Thursday.

“The PBOC is cognisant of the risks for the yuan from the growing yield divergence between US dollar and yuan rates. As such, it may leave rates unchanged or only implement modest cuts in order to safeguard the yuan.”

Meanwhile, China’s holdings of US Treasuries plunged in April to their lowest level since May 2010, according to the US Treasury Department on Wednesday.

How much is China’s foreign direct investment, is it still a good destination?

China’s holdings dropped to US$1.003 trillion in April, down by US$36.2 billion from the previous month.

China’s foreign exchange reserves – the world’s largest – rose to US$3.13 trillion last month from US$3.12 trillion in April, according to data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

China does not disclose where its foreign reserves are invested, but most of its holdings have traditionally been in US government bonds.

China has been steadily cutting its holdings in US Treasuries since November as Beijing continues to diversify its foreign exchange investments.