Announcement

**mmr** · February 28, 2011, 06:10 PM

Re: Foreign Holders of US Treasuries: December 2010

Based on the annual revision to the historical data released today, it looks like China may have occupied London while no one was looking. Of course, the Fed will catch up to the revised total Chinese holdings sometime next month (unless the $180B that the UK added since June really belongs in the Chinese total as well).

		New 5/	Old 5/
		Series	Series
	Dec	Jun	Jun
Country	2010	2010	2010
	------	------	------

China, Mainland	1,160.1	1,112.1	843.7
Japan	882.3	799.9	801.2
United Kingdom 2/	272.1	94.5	363.7
Oil Exporters 3/	211.9	210.2	216.3
Brazil	186.1	163.8	158.5
Carib Bnkng Ctrs 4/	168.6	178.9	165.9
Taiwan	155.1	151.9	128.6
Russia	151.0	168.2	123.4
Hong Kong	134.2	137.0	141.0
Switzerland	107.0	106.5	100.1
Grand Total	4,439.6	4,069.9	4,002.9

Of which:
For. Official	3,156.1	3,046.5	2,690.3
Treasury Bills	462.3	454.4	454.4
T-Bonds & Notes	2,693.8	2,592.1	2,235.9

**FrankL** · February 28, 2011, 06:56 PM

Re: Foreign Holders of US Treasuries: December 2010

ok, now to reopen the discussion we've had before on itulip: why has PRoC been buying su much through the UK, while keeping the official holdings nearly flat?

**Chomsky** · February 28, 2011, 08:15 PM

Re: Foreign Holders of US Treasuries: December 2010

Zero Hedge had this today, saying Chinese official holdings were dramatically adjusted upward, and UK holdings downward.

Chinese Treasury Holdings Revised $268 Billion Higher To $1.12 Trillion, Fed Still Top Holder Of US Debt

Earlier, the Treasury International Capital website released its periodic update/refinement of Treasury holdings. Not surprisingly, the most impacted holders were China and the "UK" which as we had previously speculated was nothing but a custodian front for Chinese institutional accumulation. China, which according to the most recent TIC data, owned $891.6 billion in Treasurys as of December 31, is now said to hold $1,160 billion, an adjustment of $268 billion. This upward revision came almost exclusively at the expense of the UK, which saw its holdings decline by $269 billion, in other words a nearly dollar for dollar shift between the UK and China. Japan, the third largest holder, was virtually unchanged at $882.3 billion compared to $883.6 billion pre revision. Oil exporters also saw a modest drop to $212 billion from $218 billion previously (all numbers as of December 31). Still, even with this adjustment, the Fed continues to be, and likely will never be surpassed, at the top position in terms of Treasury Holdings.

Full release:

Preliminary data from the latest annual survey of foreign portfolio holdings of U.S. securities are now available. The survey measured foreign holdings of U.S. securities as of June 30, 2010, to be $10,701 billion, with $2,813 billion held in U.S. equities, $6,930 billion in U.S. long-term debt securities (of which $1,167 billion are holdings of asset-backed securities (ABS) and $5,763 billion are holdings of non-ABS securities), and $959 billion held in U.S. short-term debt securities. The previous survey, conducted as of June 30, 2009, measured total foreign holdings of U.S. securities at $9,641 billion, with holdings of $2,252 billion in U.S. equities, $6,240 billion in U.S. long-term debt securities, and $1,149 billion in U.S. short-term debt securities. Long-term debt securities have an original term-to-maturity of over one year. Asset-backed securities are backed by pools of assets, such as pools of residential home mortgages or credit card receivables, which give the security owners claims against the cash flows generated by the underlying assets. Unlike most other debt securities, these securities generally repay both principal and interest on a regular basis, reducing the principal outstanding with each payment cycle. A detailed survey report, which will include final data as well as additional data detail, is expected to be available at end-April 2011. The survey was a joint effort of the Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Three data tables are presented below. Each table presents holdings by country of foreign holder. The first table shows foreign holdings of U.S. securities split into holdings of equities, long-term debt, and short-term debt. The second table divides holdings of long-term debt securities by type of issuer as follows: U.S. Treasury, U.S. government agency asset-backed, U.S. government agency non-asset-backed, U.S. corporate and other asset-backed, and U.S. corporate and other non-asset-backed. The third table shows separately foreign holdings of short-term U.S. Treasury, U.S. government agencies, and corporate (and other) debt securities.

It should be noted that in many cases it is not possible to accurately determine the country of residence of the beneficial owner of U.S. securities. Securities are often held in custody in countries other than the beneficial owner's country of residence. Respondents on this survey, in turn, may only know where the securities are held in custody. Thus, excessive foreign holdings may be attributed to countries that are major custodial centers, such as the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Additional information on survey methodology and accuracy can be found in the article, Understanding U.S. Cross-Border Securities Data

(PDF), from the Federal Reserve Bulletin, 2006.

Surveys of foreign portfolio holdings of U.S. securities are conducted annually and measure foreign holdings as of end-June each year. Complementary surveys of U.S. holdings of foreign securities are conducted annually as of end-December. Questions about the survey can be directed to Contact TIC (this link is found also at the upper right-side of any TIC webpage). Questions from the news media should be directed to the Office of Public Affairs at the Department of the Treasury at (202) 622-2960.

The Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System wish to thank all of the institutions who participated in the survey, without whose efforts the survey would not have been possible.

**c1ue** · February 28, 2011, 09:05 PM

Re: Foreign Holders of US Treasuries: December 2010

The problem is, this is now the 2nd major revision to data.

While it might be accurate, on the other hand, it might not.

Certainly it would seem more than a little strange that China's official government holdings of Treasuries is so difficult to determine.

If the problem were solely the total holdings in China - i.e. private plus public official - then I could understand that.

To say that they didn't know...twice...is more than a little odd.

	Dec	Nov	Monthly	Oct	Sep	Aug	Jul	Jun	May	Apr	Mar	Feb	Jan	Dec
Country	2010	2010	Change	2010	2010	2010	2010	2010	2010	2010	2010	2010	2010	2009

China, Mainland	891.6	895.6	-$4.0	906.8	883.5	868.4	846.7	843.7	867.7	900.2	895.2	877.5	889	894.8
Japan	883.6	877.2	$6.4	875	862.1	833.8	818.6	801.2	784.8	793.8	783.3	768.2	765.2	765.7
United Kingdom 2/	541.3	511.8	$29.5	478.5	459.8	450.3	376.5	363.7	350.9	321.1	279	233.5	208.3	180.3
Oil Exporters 3/	218	210.4	$7.6	213.9	221.5	217.8	215.4	216.3	228.6	232.9	223.4	211.9	211.9	201.1
Brazil	180.8	184.4	-$3.6	177.6	175.6	165.1	162.3	158.5	161.5	164.4	164.5	170.9	169	169.2
Carib Bnkng Ctrs 4/	155.6	146.3	$9.3	133.8	144.7	159.7	151.2	165.9	166.3	153.2	148.2	144.4	143.6	128.2
Hong Kong	138.2	138.9	-$0.7	139.2	135.9	137.8	135.2	141	145.7	151.8	150.9	152.4	146.6	148.7
Canada	134.6	134.7	-$0.1	124	114.3	102.7	100.8	93.7	84.8	81.9	77.1	67.1	54.7	52.8
Taiwan	131.9	131.1	$0.8	131.2	130	130.2	130.5	128.6	126.2	126.9	124.8	121.4	119.6	116.5
Russia	106.2	122.5	-$16.3	131.6	128.5	129	130.9	123.4	126.8	113.1	120.1	120.2	124.2	141.8
Switzerland	100.6	100.6	$0.0	101.3	103.6	106.6	105.4	100.1	84.4	80	78.8	81.8	84.4	89.7
Luxembourg	85.4	81	$4.4	77.5	85.2	78	97.9	96.6	75.6	76.9	83.9	77.8	79.1	88.4
Singapore	70.1	59.4	$10.7	63.6	53.9	52.7	52.6	50.5	40.6	42.4	45.5	42.6	41.3	39.2
Thailand	65.5	65.7	-$0.2	66.2	64	60.9	54.4	49.3	46.3	46.9	43.5	42.1	33.3	33.3
Germany	62.3	60.4	$1.9	60.1	59.7	58.7	57.1	54	55.8	54.8	53.7	50	49	47.8
India	41.6	40.7	$0.9	41.1	41	39	39.4	36.4	29.3	31	32	31.6	32.7	32.5
Ireland	38.4	42.6	-$4.2	41.4	44	42	43.6	48.3	48	45.7	43.3	38.7	39.2	43.6
Korea, South	37.9	41.5	-$3.6	41.1	40.4	41.6	39.3	38.7	37.8	38.7	40.1	39.8	39.7	40.3
Mexico	33.6	32.7	$0.9	34.9	37	36.2	33.6	33.2	34.2	33.1	36.1	33.9	34.4	36.8
Egypt	30.4	34.2	-$3.8	34.9	35	33.6	30.3	29.4	28	21.1	21.4	21.7	19.4	18.9
Turkey	28.7	28.9	-$0.2	27.6	27.6	29.5	26.5	25.5	27.6	27.9	28.7	27.3	27.5	28.1
France	27.5	32.6	-$5.1	36.1	35.1	37.8	31.5	36	37.9	40.6	39.8	32.8	36.3	30.5
Poland	23	24.7	-$1.7	26.3	25.9	24.1	22.3	23.2	23.4	24.6	23.4	22.6	22.3	22.9
Italy	21.1	20.9	$0.2	21	21.5	20.9	20.5	20.1	20.8	20.3	20.5	20.9	21.3	21.1
Colombia	20.8	20.9	-$0.1	17.3	16.8	17	16.9	17	15.7	15.7	16.2	16	16	17.3
Israel	20.7	20.5	$0.2	17.9	17.6	16.4	17.9	18.4	20.1	19.9	22	18.9	16.8	13.8
Norway	20.3	19.7	$0.6	18.7	18.8	18.2	17	16.1	15.2	15	14.6	13.6	12.3	12.1
Sweden	15.8	14.1	$1.7	15	14.4	15.7	16.6	16.5	13.4	15.3	16.3	16	15.7	15.2
Belgium	15.6	15.7	-$0.1	15.7	16.2	34.3	16.6	17.2	17.6	18.5	17.1	17	17.4	17.3
Netherlands	15.3	14.7	$0.6	14.6	15.7	17.7	16.8	17.3	17.6	19.6	19.2	20.4	20.7	20.4
Philippines	14.5	13.5	$1.0	12.9	12.9	13.7	14.7	14.3	14.4	15	14.6	12.5	11.3	11.7
Chile	14.1	13.6	$0.5	13.6	13.2	13.2	13.3	12.2	12	12	11.9	12.3	12.5	12.4
Denmark	12.8	12.8	$0.0	12.5	13	12.9	13.2	13	12.8	9.7	9.6	9.8	8.9	8.5
Malaysia	11.5	11.7	-$0.2	11.6	11.5	11.7	11.7	11.1	10.5	10.9	11	10.9	11	11.7
Australia	11.1	11.1	$0.0	11.8	14.1	11.7	15.3	14.5	14.1	17.9	14.4	14.4	15.4	16.3
All Other	152.2	159.7	-$7.5	161.1	163.2	165.8	165.6	158.2	161.8	158.4	153.7	152.3	152.2	155.9
Grand Total	4372.6	4346.8	$25.8	4307.3	4257.1	4204.7	4058.3	4002.9	3958.3	3951.1	3877.8	3745.4	3702.1	3685.1

Of which:
For. Official	2799.9	2824.9	-$25.0	2845.9	2811	2763	2718.1	2690.3	2690.8	2715.1	2703.3	2670.3	2674.6	2700.1
Treasury Bills	462.3	499.2	-$36.9	531.3	495.4	486.9	473.5	454.4	466.9	498.5	501.3	496.5	502	528.1
T-Bonds & Notes	2337.6	2325.7	$11.9	2314.6	2315.6	2276.1	2244.7	2235.9	2223.8	2216.6	2202	2173.8	2172.6	2172

Announcement

Foreign Holders of US Treasuries: December 2010

Foreign Holders of US Treasuries: December 2010

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment