Foreign investors, led by central banks, were net sellers of all US securities in January but continued to buy US Treasuries, the Treasury Department said on Monday. China remained the largest single holder of US government debt, with $889 billion in hand in January, down from $894.8 billion in December. Japan was second with $765.4 billion compared with $765.7 billion the prior month.
-- China remains top holder of US Treasury debt
Net outflows from all US securities, including short-term instruments such as Treasury bills, totalled $33.4 billion in January, reversing a $53.6 billion inflow seen in December. Official investors - primarily central banks world-wide - were the biggest sellers, unloading a record net $34.1 billion, the most since they sold $26.3 billion in September 1998 following financial crises in Asia and Russia. Long-term securities saw a net inflow of $19.1 billion, though that was well below December's $63.3 billion net inflow.
Overseas investors were net buyers of Treasuries to the tune of $61.4 billion, down from $69.9 billion in December, but official investors sold a net $4.2 billion. "Private sector purchasers have continued to buy US Treasuries. However, it is foreign governments who have temporarily stopped buying in January," said Michael Woolfolk, strategist at BNY Mellon in New York. China has complained over the past year about US policies and worried publicly about the security of its dollar assets.
But data released last month that suggested China was shedding Treasuries and had fallen behind Japan as the largest single holder of US government debt was subsequently revised, showing instead that China remained the top US creditor. Treasury said the benchmark revisions took into account additional transactions that had not been captured in the initial data for December. Treasury records on foreign security transactions date back to the mid-1930s.
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