China overtakes Japan as the largest foreign owner of U.S. treasury securities after increasing its holdings for the fifth straight month to $1.15 trillion as of the end of June this year.
The China's June figure surpassed Japan's $1.09 trillion of U.S. bonds, notes and bills in the same period, according to latest data from the U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday.
As of June, China owns long-term U.S. treasury securities of $1.14 trillion and 2.35 billion short-term securities.
Thomas Simons, a senior economist at Jefferies LLC in New York, said to Bloomberg that China's holdings may continue to increase in the coming months, given strong trade flows between U.S. and China boosting more treasury demand.
Year-on-year, the June figures also indicate that China and Japan decreased holdings by $94.3 billion and $56.3 billion respectively.
Japan became U.S. biggest creditor in October, when it owned $1.13 trillion treasuries, and ranked second after eight month.
From the data, the rest of the top five U.S. creditors by the end of June are Ireland, Brazil and Cayman Islands holding $302.5 billion, $269.7 billion and $254 billion respectively.
