{"id":256326,"date":"2025-12-29T15:12:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T15:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/256326\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T15:12:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T15:12:07","slug":"china-has-logged-a-us1-trillion-trade-surplus-where-is-all-that-money-going","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/256326\/","title":{"rendered":"China has logged a US$1 trillion trade surplus. Where is all that money going?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recent data on China\u2019s external accounts presents a conundrum: while the country\u2019s trade surplus has broken records, <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/economic-indicators\/article\/3335551\/chinas-exports-rebound-november-after-trade-war-thaw?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">surpassing the US$1 trillion benchmark<\/a> in the first 11 months of the year, growth in its official foreign exchange reserves has lagged. This seeming paradox prompts a question \u2013 where did the money go?<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Analysts said the gap reflects how much of the surplus has flowed back overseas through asset investment, largely made by private-sector players, leaving China\u2019s external accounts more balanced than the headline trade figures suggest.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Han Shen Lin, capstone director for the quantitative finance master&#8217;s programme at New York University Shanghai, said the trade surplus \u201cdoesn\u2019t automatically mean a rise in official reserves any more,\u201d as a significant portion is being recycled through the private sector.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is a shift from state-led reserve accumulation to market-led capital outflows,\u201d Lin said, noting Chinese firms are paying down foreign debt, building overseas assets or keeping earnings offshore.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThe money hasn\u2019t disappeared; it\u2019s just no longer sitting on the People\u2019s Bank of China\u2019s balance sheet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The role of the private sector has grown in parallel with the overseas footprints of Chinese firms in recent years, as narrowing domestic profit margins and rising production capacity push <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/series\/3334991\/china-inc-goes-global?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">more companies to \u201cgo global\u201d<\/a> in search of new markets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Recent data on China\u2019s external accounts presents a conundrum: while the country\u2019s trade surplus has broken records, surpassing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[132754,10852,1793,79,69863,381,179,18,1015,132753,19,17,386,132751,132752,2711,4434,53583,2710,126771],"class_list":{"0":"post-256326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-alicia-garcia-herrero","9":"tag-asia-pacific","10":"tag-beijing","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-central-financial-and-economic-affairs-commission","13":"tag-china","14":"tag-economy","15":"tag-eire","16":"tag-europe","17":"tag-han-shen-lin","18":"tag-ie","19":"tag-ireland","20":"tag-japan","21":"tag-natixis","22":"tag-new-york-university-shanghai","23":"tag-peoples-bank-of-china","24":"tag-southeast-asia","25":"tag-state-administration-of-foreign-exchange","26":"tag-us-treasury","27":"tag-yu-yongding"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115803504436239611","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}