The graphic below shows the top 20 foreign holders of U.S. Treasury Securities at the end of October, 2010:
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Source: Department of the Treasury/Federal Reserve Board
Note:
United Kingdom includes Channel Islands and Isle of Man.
Oil exporters include Ecuador, Venezuela, Indonesia, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Gabon, Libya, and Nigeria.
Caribbean Banking Centers include Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Netherlands Antilles and Panama.Beginning with new series for June 2006, also includes British Virgin Islands.
Holdings represent U.S. Treasury marketable and non-marketable bills, bonds, and notes. China continues to be the largest holder of U.S. treasury debt followed by Japan and UK. Japan has increased its holdings from $742 billion in October 2009 to $877 billion in October 2010. The UK has more than tripled its US treasury debt holdings from over a year ago.
The total U.S. debt held by foreign countries jumped from about $3.5 Trillion in October 2009 to $4.3 Trillion in October last year. It must be noted however the data above denotes only the debt held by foreigners. The majority of the total outstanding U.S. debt is still held by the American public.
