AP: Foreign Demand for Treasury Securities Falls

but AP got the number 180-degree wrong for Japan...

AP Economics Writer Martin Crutsinger reports that:

"The Treasury Department reported that foreign holdings of U.S. Treasury securities fell by $53 billion in December, surpassing the previous record of a $44.5 billion drop in April 2009"; and

"The big drop in China's holdings meant that it lost the top spot in terms of foreign ownership of U.S. Treasuries, dropping to second place behind Japan.

"Japan also reduced its holdings of U.S. Treasuries, cutting them by $11.5 billion to $768.8 billion in December, but that amount was still more than China's December total of $755.4 billion."

Except Japan didn't reduce the holdings.

If you take a look at the Treasury Department's TIC chart, China did reduce its holdings from $789 billion in November to $755 billion in December 2009. However, Japan increased its holdings from $757 billion to $768 billion, an increse of $11 billion.


Aside from Japan, one notable country that increased its US Treasury holdings is United Kingdom. UK's Treasury holdings increased from $277 billion in November to $302 billion in December, $25 billion increase. UK increased the Treasury holdings by 132% in one year.

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