n the wake of the poor trade dat out of China yesterday, Bloomberg says:
- A surge in China's imports from Hong Kong has raised fresh concern trade invoices are being manipulated to get capital out of the country.
Economists at Macquarie Securities Ltd., Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. and Natixis SA said the unusual spike in Hong Kong imports points to companies using trade channels for financial arbitrage. Over invoicing for goods gives a company or individual the opportunity to skirt China's capital controls and shift money off shore.
"It's very likely to be fake trade," said Larry Hu, head of China economics at Macquarie. "That's the main reason why imports from Hong Kong have surged."
