(Yicai) Dec. 20 -- China, the United States’ second-largest creditor, cut its holdings of US Treasury bonds for the fourth consecutive month in October to the lowest since February 2009.

China’s holdings of US Treasuries fell by USD11.9 billion to USD760.1 billion in October from the previous month, according to data released by the US Department of the Treasury yesterday. The country has been holding less than USD1 trillion US Treasury bonds since April 2022.

China trimmed its US Treasuries holdings in January, February, and March. It slightly increased them in April and then cut them again in May. In June, China hiked its US Treasury bond possession again and then returned to reduce them in July.

Japan, the US’ largest creditor, pared its holdings by USD20.6 billion to USD1.103 trillion. Also the United Kingdom, the third-biggest creditor, cut its holdings by USD18.4 billion to USD746 billion.

The net foreign inflow into short- and long-term US securities and bank flows stood at USD203.6 billion in October, of which about USD220 billion were inflows of official funds and USD16.4 billion were outflows of foreign private funds, the data from the US Department of the Treasury also showed.

Editor: Futura Costaglione