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Preliminary Report On Foreign Holdings Of U.S. Securities At End-June 2006

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HP-337 

Preliminary data from a survey of foreign portfolio holdings of U.S. securities at end-June 2006 are released today on the U.S. Treasury web site at ( http://www.treas.gov/tic/fpis.html).  A revised table on Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities, where estimates through end-January 2007 are based in part on survey data, is also released at ( http://www.treas.gov/tic/ticsec2.html, on line 4).  Final survey results, which will include additional detail as well as possible revisions to the preliminary data, will be reported on May 31, 2007.  The survey was undertaken jointly by the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.  The next survey will be for end-June 2007, and preliminary data are expected to be released by February 29, 2008.    

Complementary surveys measuring U.S. holdings of foreign securities are also carried out annually.  Data from the most recent survey, reporting on securities held on year-end 2006, are currently being processed.  Preliminary results are expected to be reported by September 30, 2007.

Overall Preliminary Results

The survey measured foreign holdings of U.S. securities as of June 30, 2006, to be $7,779 billion, with $2,431 billion held in U.S. equities, $4,733 billion in U.S. long-term debt securities1 (of which $980 are holdings of asset-backed securities (ABS) 2 and $3,753 are holdings of non-ABS securities), and $615 billion held in U.S. short-term debt securities.  The previous survey, conducted as of June 30, 2005, measured foreign holdings of $2,144 billion in U.S. equities, $4,118 billion in U.S. long-term debt securities, and $602 billion in short-term U.S. debt securities (see Table 1).  

1.  Long-term debt securities have an original term-to-maturity of over one year.
2.  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.



Table 1.  Foreign holdings of U.S. securities, by type of security, as of recent survey dates
(Billions of dollars)


Type of Security

         June 30, 2005

         June 30, 2006

 

 

 

Long-term Securities

6,262   

7,164

       Equity

2,144

2,431

       Long-term debt

4,118

4,733

              Asset-backed

        717

980

              Other

3,401

3,753

Short-term debt securities

   602

615

 

 

 

Total

6,864

7,779

Of which: Official

1,938

2,301

Table 2.  Foreign holdings of U.S. securities, by country and type of security, for the major investing countries into the U.S., as of June 30, 2006
(Billions of dollars)

 

Country or category

Total

Equities

          Long-term debt

Short-term

 

 

 

 

ABS

Other

debt

1

Japan

1,106

             195

            121

706

85

2

China, mainland1

699

4

122

556

17

3

United Kingdom

640

300

106

218

16

4

Luxembourg

549

193

69

255

32

5

Cayman Islands

485

178

135

142

31

6

Canada

382

274

22

73

13

7

Belgium

331

21

42

263

4

8

Netherlands

280

158

55

58

9

9

Switzerland

262

145

32

76

9

10

Middle East oil-exporters2

243

111

11

80

41

11

Ireland

232

69

36

62

65

12

Germany

211

73

37

86

16

13

Bermuda

206

60

43

83

20

14

France

164

95

14

42

14

15

Singapore

163

101

7

51

4

16

Taiwan

135

7

25

100

3

17

South Korea

124

1

4

106

13

18

Russia

111

*

*

42

68

19

Hong Kong

110

22

12

65

11

20

Australia

109

64

5

32

8

21

Mexico

98

15

2

60

21

22

Sweden

81

48

4

28

1

23

British Virgin Islands

78

46

1

24

6

24

Norway

75

43

12

16

4

25

Italy

53

29

4

18

2

  

Country Unknown

214

*

1

212

1

 

Rest of world

639

180

58

299

102

 

Total

7,779

2,431

980

3,753

615

 

Of which: Official

2,301

215

147

1,634

304

*   Greater than zero but less than $500 million.
1.  Excludes Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, which are reported separately.
2.  Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates.

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