By: Enas Bahgat
UAE – Mubasher: The UAE reduced its holdings of US Treasuries in February for the second month in a row.
The GCC nation’s holdings of US debt instruments retreated by $2.5 billion or 6.3% to $37.3 billion in the second month of 2020, compared to $39.8 billion in the corresponding month a year earlier, data by the US Department of the Treasury showed.
Year-on-year (YoY), the UAE’s investments in US bonds shrank by $17.2 billion or 32% from $54.5 billion in February 2019.
GCC
The GCC region’s holdings of US Treasuries declined to $278.89 billion in February from $278.912 billion a month earlier.
Accordingly, the UAE made up 13.4% of total US Treasuries held by the GCC region during February.
Globally
At the global level, the UAE came in the 32nd place among foreign holders of US Treasuries.
Japan was the largest holder with $1.268 trillion in February from $1.212 trillion a month before, followed by China with $1.092 trillion, compared to $1.078 trillion in January.
Arab world
The UAE ranked third among Arab countries in terms of investments in US Treasuries, while Saudi Arabia was the largest Arab holder of US bonds with $184.4 billion in February, up from $182.9 billion in January.
