Many analysts misrepresent the percentage of U.S. debt held by
foreigners who clearly buy the debt because they view it as a
valuable asset. The table below courtesy of the U.S. treasury
details precisely which foreign countries hold U.S. debt.
Note that the total of 4.5 trillion represents
31.5 % of the gross debt.
MAJOR FOREIGN HOLDERS OF TREASURY SECURITIES
(in billions of dollars)
HOLDINGS 1/ AT END OF PERIOD
New 5/ Old 5/
Series Series
May Apr Mar Feb Jan Dec Nov Oct Sep Aug Jul Jun Jun May
Country 2011 2011 2011 2011 2011 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010
------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------
China, Mainland 1159.8 1152.5 1144.9 1154.1 1154.7 1160.1 1164.1 1175.3 1151.9 1136.8 1115.1 1112.1 843.7 867.7
Japan 912.4 906.9 907.9 890.3 885.9 882.3 875.9 873.6 860.8 832.5 817.3 799.9 801.2 784.8
United Kingdom 2/ 346.5 333.0 325.2 295.5 277.9 271.6 242.5 209.0 190.5 181.0 107.2 94.5 363.6 350.7
Oil Exporters 3/ 229.8 221.5 222.3 218.8 215.5 211.9 204.3 207.8 215.4 211.7 209.3 210.2 216.3 228.6
Brazil 211.4 206.9 193.5 194.3 197.6 186.1 189.8 183.0 181.0 170.5 167.7 163.8 158.5 161.5
Taiwan 153.4 154.5 156.1 155.9 157.2 155.1 154.4 154.5 153.3 153.4 153.8 151.9 128.6 126.2
Carib Bnkng Ctrs 4/ 148.3 138.1 154.8 169.4 166.5 168.1 158.8 146.3 157.7 172.6 164.1 178.9 165.9 166.3
Hong Kong 121.9 122.4 122.1 124.6 128.1 134.2 134.9 135.2 131.9 133.9 131.2 137.0 141.0 145.7
Russia 115.2 125.4 127.8 130.5 139.3 151.0 167.3 176.3 173.3 173.7 175.7 168.2 123.4 126.8
Switzerland 108.2 106.3 109.9 109.8 107.6 107.0 107.0 107.7 110.0 113.0 111.8 106.5 100.1 84.4
Canada 90.7 87.7 93.3 92.9 86.5 76.7 76.7 66.1 56.5 44.9 43.0 35.9 93.7 84.8
Luxembourg 68.0 78.4 81.1 81.0 83.0 86.4 81.9 78.5 86.1 79.0 98.9 97.6 96.6 75.6
Germany 61.2 61.3 59.8 58.3 61.1 60.5 58.6 58.2 57.9 56.8 55.3 52.2 54.0 55.8
Thailand 59.8 60.7 57.1 57.6 56.5 52.0 52.2 52.7 50.4 47.3 40.8 35.7 49.3 46.3
Singapore 57.4 60.3 55.7 66.7 57.8 72.9 62.2 66.4 56.7 55.4 55.3 53.3 50.5 40.6
India 41.0 42.1 39.8 40.3 40.6 40.5 39.7 40.1 40.0 37.9 38.4 35.4 36.4 29.3
Turkey 39.3 37.9 36.2 34.3 32.9 28.9 29.1 27.8 27.8 29.7 26.7 25.7 25.5 27.6
Ireland 33.5 40.2 44.0 42.0 44.4 45.8 50.0 48.9 51.5 49.5 51.1 55.7 48.3 48.0
Korea, South 32.5 30.8 32.5 31.2 31.9 36.2 39.8 39.4 38.7 39.9 37.6 37.0 38.7 37.8
Belgium 31.4 31.6 32.2 32.0 32.1 33.2 33.4 33.4 33.8 51.9 34.3 34.8 17.2 17.6
Poland 27.9 27.4 28.4 27.3 26.3 25.5 27.2 28.8 28.4 26.6 24.8 25.7 23.2 23.4
Mexico 27.7 26.7 28.1 34.6 34.4 33.5 32.6 34.8 36.8 36.1 33.5 33.1 33.2 34.2
Italy 25.4 24.8 24.2 24.3 24.6 23.7 23.6 23.7 24.1 23.6 23.2 22.7 20.1 20.8
Netherlands 23.7 23.6 25.1 24.9 25.4 22.7 22.1 22.0 23.1 25.1 24.2 24.7 17.3 17.6
France 23.6 20.3 17.7 30.2 30.2 15.0 20.1 23.5 23.3 26.1 19.8 24.2 36.0 37.9
Philippines 23.6 23.9 23.4 22.7 22.8 20.1 19.2 18.5 18.5 19.3 20.3 20.0 14.3 14.4
Norway 21.1 21.1 21.4 20.8 19.4 19.6 19.0 18.0 18.1 17.5 16.3 15.4 16.1 15.2
Sweden 20.9 21.4 21.3 17.7 17.0 16.8 15.2 16.1 15.4 16.8 17.7 17.6 16.5 13.4
Colombia 19.9 19.8 20.2 20.1 19.8 20.2 20.3 16.7 16.3 16.5 16.4 16.4 17.0 15.7
Israel 19.1 19.3 18.9 19.8 19.9 20.6 20.5 17.9 17.6 16.3 17.9 18.3 18.4 20.1
Chile 18.9 18.6 16.7 16.0 15.0 13.9 13.4 13.4 13.0 13.0 13.1 12.0 12.2 12.0
Egypt 12.9 13.6 15.3 14.9 20.7 26.0 29.8 30.5 30.6 29.2 25.9 25.0 29.4 28.0
Malaysia 12.7 12.2 11.2 11.3 11.3 11.5 11.7 11.6 11.5 11.7 11.7 11.1 11.1 10.5
Australia 12.3 13.1 10.3 12.6 14.7 14.9 14.9 15.7 18.0 15.5 19.2 18.4 14.5 14.1
All Other 202.5 204.8 200.8 197.5 194.4 193.0 200.5 201.5 204.2 206.7 206.8 199.1 171.1 174.6
Grand Total 4514.0 4489.1 4479.2 4474.3 4453.0 4437.9 4412.5 4372.9 4324.1 4271.8 4125.3 4069.9 4002.8 3958.1
Of which:
For. Official 3239.6 3216.7 3182.0 3192.1 3183.1 3188.4 3211.6 3227.2 3192.1 3144.1 3099.2 3071.4 2690.3 2690.8
Treasury Bills 422.8 421.5 414.9 432.4 438.9 462.3 499.2 531.3 495.4 486.9 473.5 454.4 454.4 466.9
T-Bonds & Notes 2816.8 2795.2 2767.1 2759.7 2744.2 2726.1 2712.5 2695.9 2696.7 2657.2 2625.8 2617.0 2235.9 2223.8
Department of the Treasury/Federal Reserve Board
July 18, 2011
1/ Estimated foreign holdings of U.S. Treasury marketable and non-marketable bills, bonds, and notes
reported under the Treasury International Capital (TIC) reporting system are based on annual
Surveys of Foreign Holdings of U.S. Securities and on monthly data.
2/ United Kingdom includes Channel Islands and Isle of Man.
3/ Oil exporters include Ecuador, Venezuela, Indonesia, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar,
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Gabon, Libya, and Nigeria.
4/ Caribbean Banking Centers include Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Netherlands Antilles and Panama.
Beginning with new series for June 2006, also includes British Virgin Islands.
5/ New series reflect new benchmark survey taken in this month. Estimated positions based on the
previous survey are shown for comparison.
Courtesy: U.S. treasury
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About haroldchorneyeconomist
I am Professor of political economy at Concordia university in Montréal, Québec, Canada. I received my B.A.Hons (econ.&poli sci) from the University of Manitoba. I also completed my M.A. degree in economics there. Went on to spend two years at the London School of Economics as a Ph.D. student in economics and then completed my Ph.D. in political economy at the University of Toronto. Was named a John W.Dafoe fellow, a CMHC fellow and a Canada Council fellow. I also was named a Woodrow Wilson fellow in 1968 after completing my first class honours undergraduate degree. Worked as an economist in the area of education, labour economics and as the senior economist with the Manitoba Housing and Renewal Corporation for the Government of Manitoba from 1972 to 1978. I also have worked as an economic consultant for MDT socio-economic consultants and have been consulted on urban planning, health policy, linguistic duality and public sector finance questions by the governments of Manitoba, Saskatchewan,the cities of Regina and Saskatoon, Ontario and the Federal government of Canada. I have also been consulted by senior leaders of the British Labour party, MPs from the Progressive Conservative party, the Liberal party and the New Democrats on economic policy questions. Members of the Government of France under the Presidency of Francois Mitterand discussed my work on public sector deficits. I have also run for elected office at the municipal level. I first began to write about quantitative easing as a useful policy option during the early 1980s.
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