While Chinese capital flows dominated headlines earlier this year, they have not garnered much attention since the end of February.
But as the yuan is slipping again against the dollar, outflows are back in May and the People’s Bank of China’s (PBOC) stash of foreign reserves declined as well (down $28 billion to $3,192 trillion).
Most of this was due to the so-called valuation effect, which decreases the value of assets in currencies other than the dollar as the dollar rises in international markets.
However, research firm Capital Economics estimates Chinese still moved around $30 billion out of the country. “An increase in outflows would seem to make sense given the weakening of the renminbi against the dollar last month,” the firm writes in a note to clients.
