(Yicai) May 19 -- The United Kingdom surpassed China to become the United States’ second-largest creditor in March. China had held the title since October 2016.

China trimmed its holding of US Treasury bonds by USD18.9 billion to USD765.4 billion in March from the previous month, according to data released by the US Department of the Treasury on May 16.

Meanwhile, the UK added USD29 billion to its US Treasury holdings, taking them to USD779.3 billion, thus exceeding China for the first time. Japan, the US’ largest creditor, raised its haul by USD4.9 billion to USD1.1308 trillion.

China has held less than USD1 trillion of US Treasury bonds since April 2022. It swelled its stash of Treasuries three times last year, in April, June, and November, while it trimmed them in the nine other months. This January and February, it increased them by USD1.8 billion and USD23.5 billion, respectively.

The net inflow of short- and long-term US securities and bank flows stood at USD254.3 billion in March, of which about USD259.2 billion were inflows of foreign private funds, and USD4.9 billion were outflows of foreign official funds, the department’s data also showed.

Editor: Futura Costaglione