Asian exporters and investors may have amassed an "extremely large" pile of dollars through the years, widening the region's trade surplus with the US, Eurizon SLJ Capital's Mr Jen and Ms Joana Freire wrote in a note on May 7.

As a US-led trade war deepens, some Asian investors might repatriate chunks of funds or ramp up levels of protection against a weakening dollar – potentially triggering an exodus from the world's reserve currency.