Citi reports steady revenue growth in US-China corridor despite trade friction

Escalating US-China trade friction has failed to dampen corporate activity between the two economies, with Citi reporting steady revenue growth on its North America-China corridor as Chinese companies aggressively deploy risk-hedging strategies to protect their global market share.

Instead of retreating from the US market, mainland Chinese firms had leaned heavily on global institutions to navigate financial friction and complex supply chains, Citi’s Greater China executives said at a media briefing in Hong Kong.

“Our revenue has not decreased – there has been growth,” the bank’s China CEO Zhang Wenjie said, noting a 44 per cent year-on-year revenue surge across the bank’s China-US corridor in the first half of the year.

Geopolitical headwinds boosted demand for cross-border financial services, he said.

Because North America remained a vital market, Chinese enterprises increasingly turned to international banks to execute foreign exchange hedging, manage trade exposure and reconfigure capital flows, Zhang said.

The resilience comes as Chinese corporate expansion enters what Citi describes as a “Going Global 3.0” phase.