Asia’s $46 Trillion Question

Our Chief Asia Economist Chetan Ahya discusses three key decisions that will determine Asia’s international investment position and affect currency trends.   Read more insights from Morgan Stanley. ----- Transcript ----- Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I’m Chetan Ahya, Morgan Stanley’s Chief Asia Economist. Today – an issue that’s gaining traction in boardrooms and trading floors: the three big decisions Asia investors are facing right now. It’s Tuesday, July 22nd, at 2 PM in Hong Kong. So, let’s start with the big picture. Over the past 13 years, Asia’s international investment position has doubled to $46 trillion. A sizable proportion of that is invested in U.S. assets. But the recent weakness in the U.S. dollar gives rise to three important questions for investors across Asia: Should they diversify away from U.S. assets? How much of Asia’s incremental savings should be allocated to the U.S.? Or should they hedge their U.S. exposure more aggressively? First on the diversification debate. Investors are voicing concern over the U.S. macro outlook, given the twin deficits. At the same time, our U.S. economics team continues to see growth slowing, as better than expected fiscal impulse in the near term will not fully offset the drag from tariffs and tighter immigration policies.  This convergence in U.S. growth and interest rates with global peers—and continued debate about the U.S. dollar’s safe haven status has already led to U.S. dollar depreciation. And our macro strategists expect further depreciation of the U.S.D by another 8-9 percent by [the] second quarter of next year.   So what is the data indicating? Are investors already diversifying?  Let’s look at Asia’s security portfolio as that data is more transparently available. Out of the total international investment of $46 trillion dollars, Asia’s securities portfolio alone is worth $21 trillion. And of that, $8.6 trillion is in U.S. assets as of [the] first quarter of 2025. Now here’s an interesting point: China’s holding had already peaked in 2013, but Asia ex-China’s holdings of U.S. assets has been increasing. Asia ex-China’s U.S. holdings hit a record $7.2 trillion in the first quarter, largely driven by equities.  In other words, in aggregate, Asia investors are not diversifying at the moment. But they are allocating less from their incremental savings. Asia’s current account surplus remains high—at $1.1 trillion in the first quarter. And even if it narrows a bit from here, the structural surplus means Asia’s total international investment position will keep growing.  However, incremental allocations to the U.S. are beginning to decline. The share of U.S. assets in Asia’s securities portfolio peaked at 41.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024 and started to dip in the first quarter of this year. In fact, our global cross asset strategist Serena Tang notes that Asian investors have reduced net buying of U.S. equities in the second quarter.  Finally, let’s talk about hedging. Asian investors have started to increase hedging of their U.S. investment position and we see increased hedging demand as one reason why Asian currencies have strengthened recently. Take Taiwan life insurance—often seen as [a] proxy for broader trends. While their hedge ratios were still falling in the first quarter, they started increasing again in the second. That lines up with the sharp appreciation of [the] Taiwanese dollar in the second quarter.  Meanwhile, the currencies of other economies with large U.S. asset holdings have also appreciated since the dollar’s peak. These are clear signals to us that increasing hedging demand is influencing foreign exchange markets. All in all, Asia’s $46 trillion investment position gives it an enormous influence. Whether investors decide to diversify, allocate less or stay the course, and how much to hedge will affect currency trends going forward. Thanks for listening. If you enjoy the show, please leave us a review wherever you listen and share Thoughts on the Market with a friend or colleague today.