$114,500,000,000 in US Treasuries Dumped By China and New BRICS Member Saudi Arabia
BRICS members China and Saudi Arabia are unloading hundreds of billions of dollars worth of US treasuries.
New numbers from the Treasury Department show that China trimmed its US treasury holdings from $938.8 billion in June 2022 to $835.4 billion in June 2023 – a decrease of about $103.4 billion in just 12 months.
Even though China has been dumping US treasuries over the past year, the country is still one of the largest creditors of the United States, second to Japan’s holdings of $1.105 trillion.
As for new BRICS member Saudi Arabia, the Middle Eastern country reduced its holdings of US debt by $11.1 billion over the same period from $119.2 billion to $108.1 billion.
The decline in the US bond holdings of the two BRICS nations are a fresh sign of opposition to the US dollar’s hegemony.
And Bloomberg’s chief emerging markets economist Ziad Daoud says Saudi Arabia’s move to riskier assets could influence the Federal Reserve’s take on interest rates.
“Domestically, higher risks mean potential losses for the kingdom. Globally, the re-allocation of Saudi wealth could result in higher US interest rates.”
While China and Saudi Arabia have been selling US treasuries, other BRICS nations increased their holdings.
India accumulated $26.6 billion worth of US debt securities between June 2022 to June 2023. The United Arab Emirates and Brazil added $25.1 billion and $1.3 billion, respectively, to their US treasury holdings during the 12-month period.
