Working Paper

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

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 is 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, what China?s policy choices are, and how these choices could affect the U.S. economy.

Keywords: Monetary policy; central banks and their policies; foreign exchange; current account;

JEL Classification: E52; E58; F31; F32;

https://doi.org/10.20955/wp.2017.001

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Part of Series: Working Papers

Publication Date: 2017-01-09

Number: 2017-1

Pages: 45 pages