China remains largest holder of US Treasuries

WASHINGTON -- After decreasing for six consecutive months, China's holdings of US Treasuries slightly rebounded to $1.123 trillion in December, according to data released Friday by the US Department of the Treasury.

China, which is still the largest foreign holder of US Treasuries, held $1.121 trillion of US Treasuries in November, down by $17.5 billion from the previous month.

In the meantime, Japan's holdings of US Treasuries increased to $1.042 trillion in December, up from the 1.036-trillion-dollar level in November.

Combined, China and Japan hold more than a third of the total foreign holdings of US Treasuries.

When aggregating net foreign acquisitions of long-term securities, short-term US securities and banking flows, the result was a 33.1-billion-dollar net foreign outflow of US securities in December, the data showed.