China
Chinas mammoth foreign exchange reserves rose to a record $3.66 trillion in the third quarter, as the country continued to use massive FX purchases to hold down the value of its currency.
The $163.3 billion rise since the end of June is the largest since 2011, and shows Chinas all-but-unassailable cash position at a time when other emerging economies, from India to Indonesia, are being pummeled by capital outflows.
This quarters increase dwarfs the $45 billion of new reserves China purchased between April and June, and marks a return to the heady days between 2008-2011 when Chinas FX pile regularly grew by more than $100 billion per quarter. Chinas reserves have grown tenfold in the past decade.
That reflects a continued trade surplus as well as capital inflows, which force Chinas central bank to buy foreign currency if it wants to stop the yuan from appreciating.
A big chunk of these reserves China goes to some lengths to disguise its bond purchases, so we dont know exactly how much is locked up in low-yielding U.S. Treasury bonds, one reason China is so nervous about any possibility of a U.S. default.
To diversify and seek better returns on this vast cash pile, in 2007 China hived off $200 billion to create China Investment Corporation, a new sovereign wealth fund that invests in foreign equities, bonds and other assets. CIC had $575 billion under management at the end of 2012, according to its annual report, and held stakes in everything from Londons Heathrow Airport to the Moscow stock exchange.
The State Administration of Foreign Exchange, which still guards the lions share of the reserves, has also started to spread out into a wider range of asset classes. Zhu Changhong, chief investment officer at SAFE since 2009, has branched out into stocks, real estate and corporate debt, as well as non-U.S. bonds like those issued by the European Financial Stability Fund.
Chinas exports outran its imports by a total of $61.5 billion in the three months to September, while foreign direct investment in the period could be as much as $27 billion, according to an estimate by Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist Ting Lu.
Foreign direct investment totaled $8.4 billion in August and $9.4 billion in July. Septembers FDI data have yet to be released.
Mr. Lu argues China is facing renewed pressure from incoming money, unlike other emerging markets that have seen capital leaving since the U.S. Federal Reserve suggested in May it could soon begin tightening policy by reducing its massive bond-buying program.
Chinas stable currency, large current account surplus and robust financial conditions could make China a defensive place when some other emerging markets have been hit, Mr. Lu said.
In contrast to the runup in Chinas cash hoard, India saw its foreign exchange reserves decline to $276.3 billion in September from $282.4 billion in June. Indonesias reserves dropped to $95.68 billion in September from $98.1 billion in June.
By consistently selling more goods than it buys and accepting more inbound investment money than it sends abroad, China has avoided that fate.
Chinese imports have been strong, growing 7.4% on-year in September, and outbound direct investment has also been on the rise, reaching $56.5 billion in the first eight months of the year, but the country continues to run a surplus on both counts. Portfolio investment flows are limited by Chinas system of capital controls.
Taking into account foreign-currency deposits at Chinese banks, as well as changes in the dollar value of reserves held in other currencies, there remains an unexplained inflow of about $62 billion in the third quarter, according to BAML estimates. That could reflect both legitimate transactions not captured in the data and the illicit movement of cash.
Either way, the data suggest that any move to dismantle Chinas system of capital controls would lead to dramatic cross-border transfers of money. A recent International Monetary Fund study suggested that inflows in such a case could total 2%-10% of Chinas gross domestic product, while flows out of China could be even higher, as much as 15%-25% of GDP.
Theres been a lot of talk about opening the capital account, but the latest numbers show how far they are from being able to do that, said Mark Williams of London-based research firm Capital Economics. The Peoples Bank of China is still stashing away billions in foreign exchange every month. Theyre obviously not content with leaving the yuan in the hands of market forces.
The PBOC seems to have been increasingly active in the intra-day currency market in recent weeks, Mr. Williams said, rarely letting the yuan move to the edge of the narrow range in which its allowed to float.
Chinas central bank may be reluctant to allow the yuan to appreciate much further when the countrys export sector is struggling. Exports fell 0.3% on-year in September, though questions about last years data mean the reality may be slightly better.
Export orders at Chinas factories improved a bit in September, according to the official purchasing managers index, but still lagged behind the total growth in new orders. A weaker yuan at least makes life a little easier on the factory floor.
We expect the central bank to keep the exchange rate largely stable around the current level until the end of the year, in order to alleviate the pain inflicted on the export sector, said Wei Yao, an economist at Société Générale.