China cuts holdings of US Treasury bonds to $759 billion in December 2024

Photo shows US dollar banknotes in Washington, DC, the United States. (Photo/Xinhua)

China's holdings of US Treasury bonds fell to $759 billion in December, according to data released by the US Treasury Department on Tuesday (US time). It marked a ninth month of declines in China's holdings of US government debt in 2024, according to the data.

During the last month of 2024, the three largest foreign holders of the US government debt - Japan, China, and the UK - all reduced their holdings, the data showed.

A Chinese financial sector analyst said that China has been diversifying its foreign exchange reserve assets in recent years as part of routine operations, increasing its purchases of assets such as gold.

As a result, foreign holdings of US Treasuries fell in December to $8.513 trillion from $8.633 trillion in November, according to Reuters. Holdings had reached $8.679 trillion in September of 2024.

Japan, which remains the largest foreign holder of US government debt, reduced its holdings by $27.3 billion in December, bringing its total to $1.060 trillion, data from the US Treasury Department showed.

China's holdings of US Treasury bonds in December dropped by $9.6 billion to $759 billion, from $768.6 billion seen in November.

For all the months of 2024, nine months saw a month-on-month drop in China's holdings of US Treasury securities, while three months recorded increases, data from the Treasury Department showed.

China's holdings of US Treasury bonds have been below the $1 trillion mark since April 2022, following a gradual downward trend, according to domestic news portal thepaper.cn.

According to data released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) on February 7, China's foreign exchange reserves totaled $3.209 trillion at the end of January, marking a $6.7 billion increase from December's total.