IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fip/fedlrv/00081.html

Chinese Foreign Exchange Reserves, Policy Choices, and the U.S. Economy

Author

Abstract

China is both a major trading partner of the United States and the largest official holder of U.S. assets in the world. The value of Chinese foreign exchange reserves peaked at just over $4 trillion in June 2014 but has since declined to $3.19 trillion (as of August 2016). This very large decline in foreign exchange reserves is unprecedented, and some analysts have speculated that continued sales of these (mostly U.S.) assets might significantly impact the U.S. and global economies. This article explains the reasons for this large decline in official assets, China?s available policy choices, and how these choices could affect the U.S. economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher J. Neely, 2017. "Chinese Foreign Exchange Reserves, Policy Choices, and the U.S. Economy," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 99(2).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedlrv:00081
    DOI: 10.20955/r.2017.207-231
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://files.stlouisfed.org/files/htdocs/publications/review/2017-04-12/chinese-foreign-exchange-reserves-policy-choices-and-the-u-s-economy.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.20955/r.2017.207-231
    File Function: https://doi.org/10.20955/r.2017.207-231
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.20955/r.2017.207-231?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher J. Neely, 1996. "The giant sucking sound: did NAFTA devour the Mexican peso?," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 78(Jul), pages 33-48.
    2. Sebastian Edwards, 2000. "Capital Flows, Real Exchange Rates, and Capital Controls: Some Latin American Experiences," NBER Chapters, in: Capital Flows and the Emerging Economies: Theory, Evidence, and Controversies, pages 197-246, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Michael D. Bordo & Claudia Goldin & Eugene N. White, 1998. "The Defining Moment: The Great Depression and the American Economy in the Twentieth Century," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number bord98-1, January-J.
    4. Bauer, Michael D. & Neely, Christopher J., 2014. "International channels of the Fed's unconventional monetary policy," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 24-46.
    5. Neely, Christopher J., 2015. "Unconventional monetary policy had large international effects," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 101-111.
    6. Maurice Obstfeld & Alan M. Taylor, 1998. "The Great Depression as a Watershed: International Capital Mobility over the Long Run," NBER Chapters, in: The Defining Moment: The Great Depression and the American Economy in the Twentieth Century, pages 353-402, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Christopher J. Neely, 1999. "An introduction to capital controls," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 81(Nov), pages 13-30.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Falk Hendrik Laser & Jan Weidner, 2022. "Currency Compositions of International Reserves and the Euro Crisis," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 33(5), pages 917-944, November.
    2. Laser, Falk Hendrik & Weidner, Jan, 2020. "Currency compositions of international reserves and the euro crisis," Darmstadt Discussion Papers in Economics 238, Darmstadt University of Technology, Department of Law and Economics.
    3. Hans-Werner Sinn, 2020. "The Effective Rate of Interest on Target Balances," Springer Books, in: The Economics of Target Balances, chapter 0, pages 61-81, Springer.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eksi, Ozan & Tas, Bedri Kamil Onur, 2017. "Unconventional monetary policy and the stock market’s reaction to Federal Reserve policy actions," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 136-147.
    2. Juan Carlos Cuestas & Karsten Staehr, 2014. "The great (De)leveraging in the GIIPS countries. Domestic credit and net foreign liabilities 1998–2013," Bank of Estonia Working Papers wp2014-4, Bank of Estonia, revised 10 Oct 2014.
    3. Adrien Alvero & Andreas M. Fischer, 2016. "Exchange rate floor and central bank balance sheets: Simple spillover tests of the Swiss franc," Aussenwirtschaft, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science, Swiss Institute for International Economics and Applied Economics Research, vol. 67(02), pages 31-50, August.
    4. Marcel Fratzscher & Marco Lo Duca & Roland Straub, 2018. "On the International Spillovers of US Quantitative Easing," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(608), pages 330-377, February.
    5. Robert N. McCauley & Patrick McGuire & Vladyslav Sushko, 2015. "Global dollar credit: links to US monetary policy and leverage," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 30(82), pages 187-229.
    6. Sun, Lixing, 2004. "Measuring time-varying capital mobility in East Asia," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 281-291.
    7. Jung, Alexander, 2023. "US monetary policy spillovers to European banks," Working Paper Series 2876, European Central Bank.
    8. Roevekamp, Ingmar, 2021. "The impact of US monetary policy on managed exchange rates and currency peg regimes," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    9. Jonathan Hambur & Richard Finlay, 2018. "Affine Endeavour: Estimating a Joint Model of the Nominal and Real Term Structures of Interest Rates in Australia," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2018-02, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    10. Klara Halova & Roman Horvath, 2015. "International Spillovers of ECB’s Unconventional Monetary Policy: The Effect on Central and Eastern Europe," Working Papers 351, Leibniz Institut für Ost- und Südosteuropaforschung (Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies).
    11. Margaux MacDonald & Michał Ksawery Popiel, 2020. "Unconventional Monetary Policy in a Small Open Economy," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 31(5), pages 1061-1115, November.
    12. Alan G. Futerman, 2021. "Passive money system and control of exchange rates: The case of Argentina 1976–1981," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 5512-5530, October.
    13. Balcilar, Mehmet & Ozdemir, Zeynel Abidin & Ozdemir, Huseyin & Wohar, Mark E., 2020. "Fed’s unconventional monetary policy and risk spillover in the US financial markets," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 42-52.
    14. Rövekamp, Ingmar, 2019. "US Monetary Policy and the Stability of Currency Pegs," VfS Annual Conference 2019 (Leipzig): 30 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall - Democracy and Market Economy 203525, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    15. Hardik A. Marfatia & Rangan Gupta & Keagile Lesame, 2021. "Dynamic Impact of Unconventional Monetary Policy on International REITs," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-19, September.
    16. Simon Gilchrist & Vivian Z. Yue & Egon Zakrajšek, 2016. "The Response of Sovereign Bond Yields to U.S. Monetary Policy," Central Banking, Analysis, and Economic Policies Book Series, in: Elías Albagli & Diego Saravia & Michael Woodford (ed.),Monetary Policy through Asset Markets: Lessons from Unconventional Measures and Implications for an Integrated World, edition 1, volume 24, chapter 8, pages 257-283, Central Bank of Chile.
    17. Fratzscher, Marcel & Straub, Roland & Lo Duca, Marco, 2012. "A global monetary tsunami? On the spillovers of US Quantitative Easing," CEPR Discussion Papers 9195, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Belke, Angar & Gros, Daniel & Osowski, Thomas, 2017. "The effectiveness of the Fed’s quantitative easing policy: New evidence based on international interest rate differentials," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(PB), pages 335-349.
    19. Bernhard, Severin & Ebner, Till, 2017. "Cross-border spillover effects of unconventional monetary policies on Swiss asset prices," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 109-127.
    20. Michele Manna & Stefano Nobili, 2023. "Banks' holdings of and trading in government bonds," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 257-283, January.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • F3 - International Economics - - International Finance
    • F32 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Current Account Adjustment; Short-term Capital Movements

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedlrv:00081. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Scott St. Louis (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbslus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.