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Preliminary Report On Foreign Holdings Of U.S. Securities At End-June 2009

(Archived Content)

TG - 568 

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today released preliminary data from a survey of foreign portfolio holdings of U.S. securities at end-June 2009 at ( http://www.treas.gov/tic/fpis.html).   A revised table on Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities, where estimates through end-December 2009 are based in part on survey data, is also available at ( http://www.treas.gov/tic/ticsec2.html, on line 1 of Part A).   Final survey results, which will include additional detail as well as possible revisions to the preliminary data, will be reported on April 30, 2010.   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 2010 and preliminary data are expected to be released by February 28, 2011.    

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 2009, are currently being processed.   Preliminary results are expected to be reported by August 31, 2010.

Overall Preliminary Results

The survey measured foreign holdings of U.S. securities as of June 30, 2009, to be $9,693 billion, with $2,246 billion held in U.S. equities, $6,297 billion in U.S. long-term debt securities 1 (of which $1,250 billion are holdings of asset-backed securities (ABS) 2 and $5,047 billion are holdings of non-ABS securities), and $1,150 billion held in U.S. short-term debt securities.   The previous survey, conducted as of June 30, 2008, measured total foreign holdings of U.S. securities at $10,322 billion, with holdings of $2,969 billion in U.S. equities, $6,494 billion in U.S. long-term debt securities, and $858 billion in U.S. short-term 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, 2008

June 30, 2009

 

 

 

Long-term Securities

9,463

8,543

       Equity

2,969

2,246

       Long-term debt

6,494

6,297

              Asset-backed

1,532

1,250

              Other

4,962

5,047

Short-term debt securities

858

1,150

 

 

 

Total

10,322

9,693

Of which: Official

3,493

3,877

 

 

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, 2008

( Billions of dollars)

 

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Country or category

Total

Equities

          Long-term debt

Short-term

 

 

 

 

ABS

Other

debt

 

1

 China (Mainland) 1

 1,463

 76

 360

 866

 160

 

2

 Japan

 1,270

 182

 136

 884

 69

 

3

 United Kingdom

 813

 278

 61

 450

 23

 

4

 Cayman Islands

 650

 227

 139

 211

 73

 

5

 Luxembourg

 586

 137

 48

 321

 81

 

6

 Belgium

 429

 17

 49

 355

 8

 

7

 Middle East Oil Exporters 2

 353

 109

 25

 150

 68

 

8

 Ireland

 348

 60

 63

 110

 115

 

9

 Canada

 339

 242

 9

 76

 12

 

10

 Switzerland

 328

 130

 23

 136

 39

 

11

 Netherlands

 233

 128

 31

 61

 13

 

12

 Hong Kong

 221

 27

 55

 85

 53

 

13

 Bermuda

 199

 39

 46

 88

 27

 

14

 Taiwan

 194

 11

 37

 143

 3

 

15

 Germany

 182

 45

 23

 104

 10

 

16

 Brazil

 156

 1

 *

 114

 40

 

17

 Russia

 150

 *

 *

 87

 63

 

18

 Singapore

 145

 73

 8

 53

 11

 

19

 France

 139

 80

 17

 36

 5

 

20

 Norway

 119

 73

 17

 23

 6

 

21

 Korea, South

 113

 8

 29

 69

 7

 

22

 Australia

 106

 60

 5

 33

 8

 

23

 British Virgin Islands

 82

 36

 3

 25

 19

 

24

 Mexico

 81

 9

 2

 56

 14

 

25

 Sweden

 67

 37

 1

 26

 2

 

  

Country Unknown

 114

 2

 *

 100

 12

 

 

Rest of the World

 814

 160

 63

 383

 208

 

 

Total

 9,693

 2,246

 1,250

 5,047

 1,150

 

 

of which: Foreign Official

 3,877

 310

 506

 2,447

 615

 

 

 

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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