China Scarfs Up a Record Amount of U.S. Paper

“China boosted its holdings of US Treasury debt by $12.2 billion in November, enough to pass record levels set back in 2011.

As noted by the Associated Press, China now holds nearly $1.32 trillion in US Treasury debt, marking a 0.9 percent increase over the previous month for the United States’ largest foreign lender.

“Large interest-rate differential and steady appreciation of the renminbi contributed to large arbitrage inflows into China, a situation made all the more easy with China’s increasing financial integration and renminbi internationalization,” wrote UBS AG Hong Kong-based economist Wang Tao in a report on China’s data, according to Bloomberg News.

Meanwhile, Japan also purchased roughly $12 billion in Treasury holdings, a one percent increase, boosting its second-place share to almost $1.19 trillion.

Overall foreign holdings increased 1.1 percent to $5.72 trillion, marking the fourth straight month in which foreign purchases of US Treasury debt has risen.

Despite China’s record level of US holdings, Wang expects the country’s purchases to slow down over the course of 2014, largely due to the Federal Reserve’s decision to unwind its $75 billion bond-buying program….”

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