Foreign Ownership of U.S. Securities Rises

October 18, 2010 at 12:31 PM

Share & Print

U.S. Treasuries are still popular among other nations' investors, according to the release of Treasury International Capital data for August 2010. The latest figures from the U.S. Department of the Treasury showed that, despite any concerns over the dollar, non-U.S. citizens and institutions are still purchasing U.S. securities.

In data released Monday, net foreign purchases of long-term securities totaled $128.7 billion, with that divided unevenly between private foreign investors ($113.1 billion) and foreign official institutions ($23.5 billion).

Foreign holdings of short-term U.S. securities, including Treasury bills, and other custody liabilities were up $29.7 billion. The increase in foreign holdings of Treasury bills alone stood at $29.1 billion. Taking into account adjustments, the total net foreign acquisition of long-term securities is estimated at $111.8 billion.

The net flow of banks' own dollar-denominated liabilities to foreign residents, according to the Treasury, dropped by $102.6 billion.

U.S. residents, meanwhile, purchased a total of $494.7 billion in foreign long-term securities during the month of August, down from July's figure of $524.8 billion. They also sold a total of $486.8 billion in foreign securities to foreign residents. That made for a net purchase of $7.9 billion (also down from July's net $12.6 billion). In June, by comparison, U.S. residents sold a net of $10.4 billion in foreign securities as they offloaded a gross of $582.1 billion even as they purchased $571.7 billion.

NOT FOR REPRINT