Belgian Holdings of US Debt Have More Than Doubled Over The Past 12 Months



Brussels, Belgium - Increase of US Debt Holdings, Moscow, Russia - Decrease - Photo CollageForeign holdings of US debt hit another record in March according to the Treasury Department, as foreign entities boosted their holdings of US debt $59.3 billion to $5.9494 trillion.

One of the most notable pieces of information in today's report from the Treasury - Belgium continued to add aggressively to their holdings, as they purchased another $40.2 billion of US debt to bring their total holdings up to $381.4 billion.

As we've said before, this is almost certainly not the Belgian government that is snapping up all of this debt. Instead, it is likely either a nation that is using Belgium as a financial centre or an investor(s) using Euroclear, which is based in Brussels.

In any case, the spike is certainly interesting and raises the question - who is buying all of this US debt? Regardless of where it is being bought, some entity is buying all of this debt via Belgium.

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Here were the five largest holders of US debt as of March 2014:

China, $1.2721 trillion
Japan, $1.2002 trillion
Belgium, $381.4 billion
Caribbean Banking Centers, $312.5 billion
Brazil, $245.3 billion

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Russia, which has seen its relationship with the United States deteriorate rapidly over the past number of months, is dumping their US debt like crazy right now.

As a matter of fact, Russia's holdings of US debt dropped by over 20% to $100.4 billion in the month of March. Over the past year, Russia's US debt holdings are down by over 34%.

Russia is clearly looking to minimize their exposure to the United States right now and are getting rid of their US debt hand-over-fist.

Source: Largest Foreign Holders of US Debt

Filed under: General Knowledge

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