China Loses World No. 2 Creditor Rank to Germany

Germany has edged out China as the world’s second-largest supplier of external credit for the first time in at least a decade.

China’s net foreign assets fell to US$1.6 trillion at the end of last year, while Germany’s rose to US$1.62 trillion, according to Bloomberg.

The shift underscores the global implications of last year’s turbulence in China, where almost US$1 trillion of capital is estimated to have fled with the central bank burning through US$513 billion of its foreign reserves to prop up its currency.

China's reserves  peaked at US$4 trillion in 2014.

Japan is the world's number one external creditor nation. Japan’s net overseas assets grew 13 percent to $3 trillion in 2014, according to the latest data.

-RW