The market is rapidly de-dollarizing. It is remarkable that international dollar funding markets and cross-currency basis remain well-behaved. In a typical crisis environment, the market would be hoarding dollar liquidity to secure funding for its underlying US asset base. This dollar imbalance is what ultimately results in the triggering of the Fed swap lines. Dynamics here seem to be very different: the market has lost faith in US assets, so that, instead of closing the asset-liability mismatch by hoarding dollar liquidity, it is actively selling down the US assets themselves.
» The US administration is encouraging the sell-off in US Treasuries. «
We wrote a few weeks ago that US administration policy is encouraging a trend towards de-dollarization, to safeguard international investors from a weaponization of dollar liquidity. We are now seeing this play out in real-time, at a faster pace than even we would have anticipated. It remains to be seen how orderly this process can remain. A credit event in the global financial system, that threatens the provision of short-term dollar liquidity, is the point of greatest vulnerability, which would turn dollar dynamics more positive.
» Japan is the largest official holder of US Treasuries. «
The US administration is encouraging the sell-off in US Treasuries. The first-order effect of current policy is, of course, the generation of a large negative supply-side shock, that raises inflation and makes it harder for the Fed to cut rates. There is, of course, the bond basis trade that is being unwound. But there is something larger at play as well: a policy objective of reducing bilateral trade imbalances is functionally equivalent to lowering demand for US assets as well.
This is not a theoretical consideration: the US has, this week, initiated trade negotiations with Japan and South Korea, with a specific reference to currency levels being a negotiating objective. It should not be overlooked that Japan is the largest official holder of US Treasuries. An implicit negotiating objective of lowering USD valuations entails the possibility of the sale of US Treasuries from the Japanese Ministry of Finance. We argued two weeks ago that the whole Mar-a-Lago accord framework was flawed, because it imposed fundamental inconsistencies in the desired economic objectives of the administration. We are now seeing those inconsistencies exposed in broad daylight.
China is de-dollarizing with the launch of a $1.2 trillion digital yuan system,
bypassing the Western SWIFT network. Lena Petrova, April 8, 2025.
Quoted from:
George Saravelos (April 10, 2025) - From Trade War to Financial War: China's Next Move Could Rock the Dollar.
George Saravelos (April 10, 2025) - From Trade War to Financial War: China's Next Move Could Rock the Dollar.
[George Saravelos is global head of FX research at Deutsche Bank.]
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