At a time when foreign residents decreased their holdings of long-term US securities, India has became the 12th largest holder of US government securities at the end of 2016, with exposure worth $ 118.2 billion, as compared to $116.8 billion for the previous year. However, in December 2016, the country’s exposure stood slightly lower than previous month November 2016.
As per the US Treasury Department latest data, Japan remained the largest holder of government securities, with holdings worth $ 1.09 trillion, followed by China with securities to the tune of $ 1.06 trillion and Ireland was at the third place with holdings worth $ 288.2 billion. Among the BRIC, a group of five nations-Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, India is at the third place after China and Brazil in terms of exposure, while Russia held American government securities worth $86.1 billion in December 2016.
Other nations having more holdings than India were Luxembourg ($ 223.4 billion), United Kingdom ($ 217.1 billion), Hong Kong ($ 191.4 billion), Taiwan ($ 189.3 billion) and Belgium ($ 120.4 billion). The data reflects foreign holdings of US securities collected primarily on the basis of custodial data. Foreign residents decreased their holdings of long-term US securities in December with net sales of $ 13.9 billion.