Beijing cuts US Treasuries exposure for second successive month

China’s US Treasury holdings fell for the second month in a row in June, AP reported. According to the Treasury Department’s monthly report on debt holdings, China reduced its exposure by US$24 billion to US$843.7 billion, a decline of 2.7%. Total holdings of Treasury securities rose US$45.6 billion to US$4 trillion. China remains America’s largest creditor, although the decline in June followed a US$32.5 billion drop in May. Beijing’s attentions have instead been turned towards European and Japanese debt. Yu Yongding, a former advisor to the People’s Bank of China, said last month that the country has been buying “quite a lot of European bonds.” Earlier in August, Japan’s Ministry of Finance said China bought US$20.1 billion more Japanese debt than it sold in the first half of 2010, the fastest pace of purchases in at least five years.