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Adam Wolfe on Bloomberg: Something Just Doesn’t Add Up in Chinese Trade Data

Beth McCann

9th AUG. 2022

Bloomberg’s Ye Xie  and ASR’s Adam Wolfe discussed the unusual discrepancy that has showed up in two sets of trade data in China…

Comparing the Customs data with that from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), China’s trade surplus could either be overstated or under-reported by a staggering $166 billion over the past year….”


Could Chinese buyers overstate their foreign purchases to SAFE, which regulates the capital account, so they can move money out of the country?


Adam noted, “The cross-border transactions show there was widespread overpaying for imports in 2014-2015, during a period of intense capital flight, but not at the moment

  • ASR Clients can read about why the discrepancy does not look like capital flight in Adam’s note on China’s trade surplus: a trillion dollar question

  • To receive a copy of this note as part of a free trial, please reply HERE

  • To read the complete Bloomberg article, click HERE (Bloomberg terminal required)

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