Turkey liquidating U.S. treasuries

Turkey dropped off the U.S. government’s list of major owners of Treasury debt, according to a Treasury Department report released Wednesday. 

Turkey’s holdings of bonds, bills and notes have fallen 42% in the first half of this year, dropping to $28.8 billion in June from $32.6 billion in May and $61.2 billion at the recent high of November of 2016. Treasury has a floor of $30 billion to be classified as a major holder.

Russia, which had previously been a top-10 foreign creditor to the U.S., remained off the list in June after slipping below the threshold a month earlier. Russia’s holdings held at a more than decade low of $14.9 billion, the Treasury data showed.

The holdings of China, the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasuries, fell by $4.4 billion to $1.18 trillion. Japan’s portfolio of Treasuries, the second-largest, fell to a more than six-year low of $1.03 trillion.

Japan’s ownership of Treasuries, which is the second largest foreign creditor of the federal government, also decreased to $1.030 trillion in June, the lowest since October 2011. Its Treasuries stake totaled $1.049 trillion in May.

Overall, foreign ownership of Treasuries was almost unchanged at $6.21 trillion in June, Bloomberg reported.

Countries whose portfolios of Treasuries rose included the U.K., the fifth-biggest holder with $274 billion in American government debt from $265 billion in May. Others with a larger amount in June included Luxembourg, Singapore, Cayman Islands, South Korea, Belgium and Italy.