China has reclaimed its position as America’s biggest creditor, displacing Japan as the top holder of US Treasuries according to fresh data from the US government.
Investors have been closely scrutinising China’s ownership of Treasuries after the country spent a portion of its foreign exchange reserves last year to defend the renminbi, and in October it ceded its status as the largest foreign holder of Treasuries to Japan.
Since then, however, the Chinese currency has stabilised and so far in 2017 has strengthened from Rmb6.9450 at the start of the year to Rmb6.6855 on Tuesday.
China bought $44.3bn of Treasuries in June, its biggest haul since June 2011 and the fifth straight month of increases, taking its total holdings to $1.147tn. Japan sold $20.5bn, taking its total holdings to $1.091tn.
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