Fire up the credit cards! China BOUGHT US Treasuries in March! but still less holdings than January...

[c1ue]

A very nice $132.4B net foreign purchase of US Treasuries in March 2010 - almost enough to pay the bill for that month.

China purchased a net $17.7B.

UK continues to punch beyond its class in US Treasury purchases: $45.5B

Japan bought $16.4B after 6 months of single digit billion purchases.

Canada doing its part as well - has now tripled its US Treasury holdings since June 2009: $9.5B

The rest of the top 10:

Oil exporters: $10.7B
Luxembourg: $6.7B
France: $6.2B
Ireland (!): $4.6B
Caribbean: $3.8B
Germany: $3.8B

The top 10 represented $124.9B in purchases vs. the net $132.4, and the UK was more than 1/3 of the top 10 by itself.

Now we just need this for every other month...for the next 3 or 5 years...

	Mar	Feb	Jan	Dec	Nov	Oct	Sep	Aug	Jul	Jun	Jun
Country	2010	2010	2010	2009	2009	2009	2009	2009	2009	2009	2009
China, Mainland	895.2	877.5	889	894.8	929	938.3	938.3	936.5	939.9	915.8	776.4
Japan	784.9	768.5	765.4	765.7	754.3	742.9	747.9	727.5	720.9	708.2	711.2
United Kingdom 2/	279	233.5	208.3	180.3	155.5	108.1	126.8	104.3	97.1	90.8	213.5
Oil Exporters 3/	229.5	218.8	218.4	207.4	208.3	209	205.9	209.8	209.9	211.8	191.2
Brazil	164.4	170.8	169.1	169.3	165.8	164.9	153.6	146	146.8	148.5	139.8
Hong Kong	150.9	152.4	146.6	148.7	142.1	137.8	128	120.5	111.1	95.7	99.8
Carib Bnkng Ctrs 4/	148.3	144.5	143.7	128.4	123.4	114.3	116.7	125.2	138.7	135.3	191.9
Taiwan	124.8	121.4	119.6	116.5	115.4	115.6	115.1	112.9	114.4	114	77
Russia	120.1	120.2	124.2	141.8	151.4	145.9	145.1	144.9	141.3	143.3	119.9
Luxembourg	84.6	77.9	79.1	88.4	80.2	79.5	87.5	83	80.8	92.9	104.3
Switzerland	78.8	81.8	84.4	89.7	89.6	85.3	82.7	82	81.9	85.7	72
Canada	76.6	67.1	54.7	52.8	50.7	44.8	42.3	30.2	24.1	23	18.4
Germany	53.7	49.9	49	47.8	48.7	47.9	48.8	50.1	51.2	48.9	53.8
Singapore	45.5	42.6	41.3	39.2	37.5	36.3	39.4	43.1	43.4	41.9	40.8
Thailand	43.5	42.1	33.3	33.3	29.6	28	27.9	31.4	29.3	27.5	29.7
Ireland	43.3	38.7	39.2	43.6	43.1	42.6	37	40.8	42.9	50.6	46.3
Korea, South	40.1	39.8	39.7	40.3	40.2	43.3	39.9	39.8	38.7	37.4	36.3
France	38.7	32.5	35.9	30.5	40.4	29.1	25	28	17.5	18.9	26
Mexico	36.1	33.9	34.4	36.8	31.9	26.5	27.8	33.2	33.4	35.2	29.5
India	32	31.6	32.7	32.5	34.5	35.8	38.8	41.5	41.8	42.2	39.3
Turkey	28.7	27.3	27.5	28.1	29.4	30.3	28.1	28.5	27.1	27.3	27.5
Poland	23.4	22.6	22.3	22.9	21.9	21.9	21.5	21.3	20.9	20.5	5.6
Israel	22	18.9	16.8	13.8	15.1	14.5	16.9	16.2	15.5	16.6	18.1
Egypt	21.4	21.7	19.4	18.9	19.4	14.3	14.9	14.5	12.7	11.5	17.3
Italy	20.5	20.9	21.3	21.1	21.6	21.6	20	19.3	19.8	19.1	16.7
Netherlands	19.2	20.4	20.7	20.4	21	20.5	22	22	22.2	19.6	18.9
Belgium	17.1	17	17.4	17.3	17.4	16.9	17.2	17.7	17.8	17.9	15.7
Sweden	16.3	16	15.7	15.2	15.5	15.3	14.4	12.7	12.5	12.5	16.4
Colombia	16.2	16	16	17.3	17.2	18.3	18.3	17.9	16.4	13.3	11.8
Philippines	14.6	12.5	11.3	11.7	11.7	11.4	11.4	11.9	10.9	11.2	11.6
Norway	14.6	13.6	12.3	12.1	8.5	7.3	7.6	7.1	11.3	11.1	28.7
Australia	14.4	14.4	15.4	16.3	13.7	12.8	12.3	12.5	12.1	12.2	9.9
Spain	13.5	13.4	13.7	13.7	13.1	13.1	12.3	12.8	11.6	11.1	5.5
Chile	11.9	12.3	12.5	12.4	12.1	12.4	12.8	12.9	13.4	14.2	14.3
Malaysia	11	10.9	11	11.7	11.8	11.7	11.7	11.9	12.5	12.4	11.7
All Other	149.9	148.7	147.4	150.6	153.8	158	159.4	161	163.7	162.5	136.4
Grand Total	3884.6	3752.2	3708.6	3691.5	3674.9	3575.9	3575.3	3531	3505.7	3460.3	3383.5
Of which:
For. Official	2708.8	2676.5	2681.1	2706.3	2734.3	2714.5	2699.2	2689.8	2675.9	2625.5	2295.7
Treasury Bills	506.8	502.8	508.5	534.3	586.6	598	597.7	607.3	606.6	571.9	571.9
T-Bonds & Notes	2202	2173.8	2172.6	2172	2147.7	2116.5	2101.5	2082.5	2069.3	2053.6	1723.8

[ASH]

Re: Fire up the credit cards! China BOUGHT US Treasuries in March! but still less holdings than January...

Least ugly contest is swinging more in the dollar's favor. I presume the lenders are shaken by the recent Euro turmoil.

I think we get our comeuppance last.