According to RT and Wolf Street, the Russian Federation has sharply reduced its holdings of United States Treasury bonds with Russian ownership. They recently moved to an 11-year low.
Russia’s ownership of US bonds declined from $96.1 billion in March to $48.7 billion in April and now stands at just $14.9 billion, according to the latest available data. This has some in the financial community worried about what is prompting this drastic change.
The US Treasury on Tuesday released a list of the top 33 investors in US debt. Russia was in the top ten in 2010 with ownership of $176.3 billion. But it now ranks below Chile in terms of US Treasury holdings. The process of unloading of the US debt started as Obama began raising sanctions against Russia in 2011 and has since intensified.
Elvira Nabiullina, head of the Central Bank of Russia (CBR), said the reduction is due to an assessment of financial, economic, and geopolitical risks, according to RT.
The Russian Federation has been buying large amounts of gold as it continues to sell US Treasury bonds, recently overtaking China as the world’s biggest holder with $80.5 billion-worth of the precious metal. China holds at $183 billion of US debt, the most of any foreign country.
Turkey has also cut in half it’s US debt holdings from $62 billion in 2017 to $32.6 billion in May. Germany’s position stands at $78.3 billion.
The US currency has come under increasing pressure in 2018 as US debt mounts.
Does this news about Russia, and other countries, cutting away at their US debt holdings concern you? What about how Russia is increasing their holdings in gold? Let us know what you think about these economic changes and the impact it may have on our countries financial future.
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