中國減持德國國債配合歐洲量化寬鬆
Eurozone central bankers, struggling to boost a flagging recovery, have received help from Beijing for their 1.1tn quantitative easing plan thanks to sales of German government debt by the People’s Bank of China.
正在竭力提振疲弱經濟復甦的歐元區央行官員們在1.1萬億歐元量化寬鬆(QE)計劃上獲得了北京方面的幫助，中國人民銀行(PBoC)出售了所持一部分德國政府債券。
The PBoC’s reserve management wing, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, has been selling some of its German government bonds since the ECB began buying them in March, say two sources close to central banks in China and Europe.
接近中國和歐洲央行的兩個消息人士表示，自歐洲央行(ECB)從今年3月開始購買德國國債以來，中國央行的儲備管理部門——國家外匯管理局(SAFE)一直在減持這些債券。
Safe does not deal directly with eurozone central banks, which purchase bonds from investors via banks’ bond trading desks. But its sales of German bonds are making life easier in the dealing rooms of Europe’s monetary powers, where traders have been handed the difficult task of finding 60bn of mostly government debt to buy each month as part of the QE package.
外管局並不直接與歐元區各國的央行進行交易，後者通過銀行的債券交易部門向投資者購買債券。但中方出售德國債券使歐洲貨幣主管機構交易部門的日子好過了一點，這些部門的交易員面臨一項艱鉅的任務：每個月都要找到600億歐元的債券（以國債爲主）買下，作爲QE計劃的一部分。
Concerns over the whether the Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank, could find enough German bonds to buy have long surrounded the QE programme. The Bundesbank must purchase around 10bn of bonds a month — a potentially problematic amount due to low levels of debt issuance by the German state, although ECB officials have repeatedly played down these concerns.
關於德國央行(Bundesbank)能否找到足夠德國國債可以買下的擔憂，一直困擾着QE計劃。德國央行每月必須買入約100億歐元的債券，這個數額潛在是一個問題，原因是德國政府發債不多。歐洲央行官員一再淡化這些擔憂。
The Bundesbank has scoured the world for sellers, according to one person familiar with the matter, including Safe. Under pressure to make a return on its reserves portfolio, Safe has agreed to take advantage of the high prices on offer for low-yielding German bonds.
據一位知情人士透露，德國央行在全世界尋找賣家，包括中國的外管局。外管局在國內面臨壓力，要求其使外匯儲備投資組合產生回報，於是同意利用買方爲低收益率的德國國債開出的高價格。
“Chinese sales of German Bunds would certainly facilitate the ECB’s quantitative easing operations, so this is an instance where the interests of the ECB and PBoC are congruent,” said Eswar Prasad, economist at Cornell University and former China division head at the International Monetary Fund.
“中方出售德國國債，肯定會有助於歐洲央行的量化寬鬆操作，所以這是歐洲央行和中國央行利益一致的一個實例，”康奈爾大學(Cornell University)經濟學家、曾執掌國際貨幣基金組織(IMF)中國部的埃斯瓦爾渠拉薩德(Eswar Prasad)表示。
Sales by Safe, thought to hold hundreds of billions of euros-worth of European government debt, would also help the ECB should an emerging market slowdown threaten the single currency area’s recovery and force a more aggressive package of monetary easing.
據信持有數千億歐元歐洲政府債務的中國外管局減持此類債務，也將在新興市場增長放緩一旦危及歐元區經濟復甦、迫使歐洲央行採取更爲激進的貨幣寬鬆政策的情況下，幫助歐洲央行。
Officials in Frankfurt are expected to revamp QE in December in response to the slowdown, pursuing options that include extending their deadline for bond purchases past the current limit of September 2016 or upping their monthly count for bond buying from the current level of 60bn.
預計法蘭克福的官員們將在12月對經濟放緩做出迴應，調整QE計劃，他們的選擇包括延長目前爲2016年9月的債券購買截止日期，或者加大目前爲每月600億歐元的債券購買力度。
