China sold 729.2 billion yen ($9 billion) worth of Japanese sovereign debt in September for the second consecutive month, according to Japanese Ministry of Finance figures obtained by Bloomberg.
2 @& d1 P. R5 r* t! U( S+ ~- W, ? China sold a record 2.02 trillion yen ($25 billion) of Japanese debt in August after having bought 2.32 trillion yen ($28.7 billion) of the securities this year through July, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
/ ?! c! j" z6 n' O Su Jingxiang, a researcher of globalization at the China Academy of Modern International Relations, told the Global Times that "China's sale of yen debt before the yen's appreciation is a good thing for Japan domestic debt holders."" Y4 ~! V: f3 Z/ x
Wan Jun, a researcher of economics with the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times, "China is the word's largest foreign-exchange-reserves country; buying and selling yen debt reflects the pursuit of diversity for China."
7 g! v) N* @6 q% o* l5 x d Wan noted that President Hu Jintao's recent promise to buy Portuguese sovereign debt is another example of China diversifying its foreign investments.. h8 ?* Q. K& z$ `: ?2 O
"The country may be selling Japanese securities on concern the yen will weaken after it reached 80.22 per dollar on November 1, the strongest level since April 1995," said Junichi Makino, a senior economist at the Daiwa Institute of Research in Tokyo, according to Bloomberg.- s6 A1 T6 | }% j0 `
"China can only get returns from currency gains."+ e* {' d9 P x6 }. \1 W
He Maochun, the director of the Economic Diplomacy Research Center at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times, "Like family investment, State foreign investment mainly aims at profits. When the strategy-makers think a trade is fruitful, they can make it."* T; o* x$ E6 B( U9 O
According to Ministry of Finance data, Japan in June had 904 trillion yen ($11.2 trillion) in outstanding government bonds and borrowings, about 95 percent of which were held domestically.' Q) a: A5 h A$ v' `; R3 Q
The Japanese currency Tuesday, at 80.63 per dollar, approached a 15-year high, which was 79.75 per dollar on April 19, 1995, according to Bloomberg. |