China Cuts Its Us Treasury Bond Holdings

(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) Senior economists have argued against reading too much into China reducing its holdings of U.S. treasury bonds in December with its biggest monthly cut in two years, Xinhua ?news agency reported. China, the largest holder of U.S. treasury bonds, slashed its holdings by 47.8 billion U.S. dollars in the final month of 2013, statistics from the U.S. Department of the Treasury showed on Tuesday.



The cut came abruptly after the country's continued raising of holdings of the bonds for three consecutive months from September to November last year. However, on a year-on-year basis, China's holdings of U.S. T-bonds rose about 4 percent by the end of last year to 1.27 trillion U.S. dollars, maintaining its position as the largest foreign creditor the United States.



And experts warned against hyping the temporary drop in December, forecasting that China's holdings will remain steady in the next few years due to its enormous foreign reserve stockpile and the quality of dollar assets.