Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund will shun renminbi-denominated Chinese sovereign bonds from its $1.73tn portfolio, citing liquidity concerns and other risks in the world’s second-largest economy.
The decision by the GPIF, the world’s largest pension fund, was revealed on Wednesday in the minutes of its recent management committee meetings and taken against a backdrop of mounting concern about the unacceptably high risk to mainstream investors of Chinese markets.
Relations between Tokyo and Beijing are also frosty owing to regional security concerns, increasing protectionism over the semiconductor industry and wider geopolitical tensions.