Chinese Treasury Holdings Revised $268 Billion Higher To $1.12 Trillion

02-28-2011 • ZeroHedge.com

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.