China's unremitted export earnings

Could be as much as $1.5tn but the implications depend on who is behind it.

• China’s trade balance is enormous, $844bn in the year to March.

• During this period, Chinese goods traders remitted (transferred) $411bn back to China from overseas and, of this, sold $271bn of FX onshore (bought RMB).

• This means that $433bn of last year's trade surplus never made it back to China and, secondly, that a large share ($140bn) that was repatriated was not converted into RMB.