India trims American govt securities exposure to USD 118.8 bn

After hiking its exposure to US government securities in the past few months, India trimmed the holdings to USD 118.8 billion in February even as neighbouring China purchased more such instruments.
All the BRIC nations, except China, cut their exposure to these securities in February, with Russia reducing its holding by USD 9 billion to USD 87.6 billion.
Latest data available with the US Treasury Department shows that India's holding came down to USD 118.8 billion in February compared to USD 119.8 billion recorded in January this year.
Since November, India had been raising its exposure and at that time the holdings were worth USD 115.4 billion. It went up marginally to USD 116.8 billion in December.

In the case of Brazil, the holding was significantly reduced to USD 247.3 billion in February from USD 255.7 billion seen in January. During this period, Russia's exposure fell to USD 87.6 billion from USD 96.9 billion.
However, China remained the largest holder of US Treasury securities with holdings worth USD 1.252 trillion in February, slightly higher than USD 1.237 trillion seen in January.

The second biggest exposure was that of Japan at USD 1.133 trillion.
Meanwhile, US economic growth slowed to 1.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to the previous three months.
"Real GDP growth slowed to 1.4 per cent in the fourth quarter from 2 per cent in the third quarter. Retail trade was the leading contributor to the deceleration in real GDP in the fourth quarter," the US Bureau of Economic Analysis said on April 21.