Modest PBOC fx asset growth may fit rising CNY lending, Brad Setser notes

Modest PBOC fx asset growth may fit rising CNY lending, Brad Setser notes
PBOC fx assets rise with CNY lending

Brad Setser indicates that the increase in foreign exchange assets in a different People’s Bank of China (PBOC) data set has been relatively modest, which is in line with recent trends.

He suggests this pattern could correspond with increased external lending by the State Council Bank (SCB) in Chinese yuan (CNY), but emphasizes the need to see settlement data before making strong conclusions, as the two series have not historically matched well.

Setser has recently noted that China is moving some of its reserves away from the dollar to agency securities, with formal reserves at 55 percent in dollar assets, according to his observations in a previous report. He has also highlighted the sustained influence of Asian government pension funds such as NPS and GPIF on market movements in earlier coverage. These points offer context to his ongoing tracking of official asset allocations.

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