ImagineSaudi Arabia sells US Treasuries, and uses the dollars it receives to pay its civil servants. Then imagine that a Saudi Arabian civil servanttakes their pay and uses the money to buy a BMW car in euros. What ishappening? Saudi Arabia is selling dollars and buying euros. It does not matterthat there is an asset on one side of the transaction and a BMW on the otherside of the transaction — the foreign exchange market implication is the samewhether it is Bunds or BMWs that are bought.

试想沙特阿拉伯卖出美国国债，然后用得到的美元给公务员发薪水。然后，沙特阿拉伯的公务员又会拿着薪水去用欧元买宝马。发生了什么？沙特阿拉伯正在卖出美元，买进欧元。无所谓交易的一边是资产，另一边是宝马–不管是买进债券还是宝马，外汇市场的走向都是一样的。

If theMiddle East buys assets, they like their assets to be made in America (centralbanks buy roughly twice as many US assets as other assets). If the Middle Eastbuys products and services, they like their products and services to be made inEurope (the Middle East buys twice as much from Europe as from the US). Thus ifthe Middle East is selling assets to buy goods, it sells dollars to buy euros.

如果中东地区买进资产，他们倾向于美国发行（央行买进的美国资产大致是其他资产的两倍）。如果中东地区要买产品和服务，他们更青睐欧洲制造（中东地区从欧洲买进的量是从美国买进的两倍）。因此，如果中东地区卖出资产来购买货物，就相当于卖出美元购进欧元。