Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Foreigners Continue Buying Treasury Securities

Remarkably, net foreign purchases of Treasury bonds and notes in September totaled $44.7 billion, up from $28 billion in August, according to the government's latest report on cross-border investment flows.

Total net foreign purchases of U.S. long-term financial assets -- stocks, corporate bonds and government bonds -- in September came to $55.7 billion, up from $37.5 billion in August.

In the 12 months through September, foreigners bought a net $333 billion of Treasury notes and bonds. That was down 9.5% from the amount of net purchases in the 12 months ended September 2008.

The Chinese remain the biggest single foreign owner of Treasury securities -- bonds, notes and bills -- at $798.9 billion in September, Treasury data show. That total was up from $727 billion at the start of the year.

Japan is the second-largest holder of Treasuries, at $751.5 billion, up from $626 billion at the start of the year.

Britain is the third-largest, at $249 billion, nearly double what it held at the start of January.

In an indication that panic is leaving the system, foreign holdings of dollar-denominated short-term U.S. securities, including Treasury bills, and other custody liabilities decreased $11.8 billion. Foreign holdings of Treasury bills decreased $0.3 billion.

1 comment:

  1. Those figures are coming from the government, right? I'd believe a dictator in the Third World a lot sooner than the US government.

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