India's exposure to US government securities surges to $91 bn

Steep rise in holding also comes at a time when world's largest economy seeing relatively better recovery

Hiking its holding by $ 8 billion in just a month, India's exposure to US government securities rose to $ 91.2 billion at the end of January this year.

This is also the highest level in more than one year.

Latest data from the Treasury Department show that India held securities worth $ 91.2 billion in January compared to $ 83 billion in December last year.

The steep rise in holding also comes at a time when the world's largest economy is seeing relatively better recovery.

China remains the largest holder of these securities with exposure to the tune of $ 1.24 trillion in January.

Among the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) grouping, India has the third highest holding after China and Brazil ($ 256.5 billion).

In January, Russia's exposure stood at $ 82.2 billion.

Since October 2014, India has been hiking its exposure when it stood at $ 77.5 billion. The next month the same was raised to $ 80.5 billion.

According to the Treasury Department, the sum total in January of all net foreign acquisitions of long-term securities, short-term securities and banking flows touched $ 88.3 billion.

Out of the total, net foreign private inflows were $ 60.7 billion, and net foreign official inflows were $ 27.6 billion.

"Foreign residents decreased their holdings of US Treasury bills by $ 10.8 billion. Foreign resident holdings of all dollar-denominated short-term US securities and other custody liabilities decreased by $ 8.1 billion," it said in a recent statement.

Meanwhile, the US economy expanded 2.2% in the fourth quarter of 2014. The country's real GDP is the value of production of goods and services adjusted for price changes.