Written by Yuhua Zhang, GEI Associate
During the past year, China continued to cut US treasury holdings. By the end of December 2014, China’s treasury holdings dropped to 1244.3 billion USD, which is the lowest since February 2013. Even though other leading foreign holders increased their investment in US treasuries, China remains US largest foreign creditor.
According to statistics from US Treasury Department, China cut US treasury holdings in 2014 by $25.8 billion. Despite all this, China remains US biggest foreign creditor.
China did not stop purchasing US Treasuries – it changed the type of treasuries being purchased. In the past year, the net increase of China’s purchase of long-term Treasury with maturity in two to thirty years reaches $185.683 billion, which breaks the highest record of $123.454 billion in 2009. During this same period, China sold large amounts of short-term US debt.
In any event, China is slowing down the growth rate of purchasing US debt during the second half of 2014. Based on relevant statistics, China’s net purchase of US Treasury in the first six months of 2014 reaches $21.8 billion, which out paced the $9.1 billion in the second half of 2014.
Some have indicated that due to the rapid development of domestic monetary market, RMB is becoming a global currency. China’s economy is transforming to one driven by domestic demand, China’s purchases of US debt should continue to gradually decrease.