India trims US securities holdings to $118.8 bn

The Dollar Business Bureau

India reduced its holdings of the US government securities to $118.8 billion in February this year, amid continuing economic uncertainties across the globe. This could be due to a slowing down in US GDP to 1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2015 from 2% in the third quarter.

After hiking the exposure to these securities for the past few months, India has trimmed the exposure in the month of February, even as China purchased more such securities.  

According to the recent data from the US Treasury Department, India's holding came down to $118.8 billion in February this year, compared to $119.8 billion in January. 

Since November last year, India had been increasing its exposure to holding American government securities, which stood at $115.4 billion at that time. By the end of December 2015, the total holdings stood at $116.8 billion. In the month of January alone, the country purchased instruments to the tune of $3 billion, taking the total exposure to $119.8 billion. But by February, it trimmed its holdings to $118.8 billion.

Other than China all the BRIC nations trimmed their exposure in February, with Russia significantly lowering its holding by $9 billion, bringing it down to $87.6 billion from $96.9 billion.

Brazil’s exposure fell considerably to $247.3 billion in February from the previous month’s holdings of $255.7 billion.

However, China continued to be the largest holder of these securities worth $1.252 trillion in February, a little more than $1.237 trillion seen in January, while Japan stood at the second spot with $1.133 trillion.