foreign central banks buy more u.s. treasuries-fed
Foreign central banks buy more U.S. Treasuries-Fed September 9, 2004 4:30pm ET (Reuters)
NEW YORK, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Foreign central banks bought more U.S. Treasuries in the latest week, the Federal Reserve reported on Thursday, taking their holdings to a fresh record.
The Fed said its overall holdings of Treasury and agency debt kept for overseas central banks rose $3.069 billion to $1.291 trillion in the week ending Sept. 8. Total custody holdings are up a massive $218 billion for the year so far.
The breakdown of custody holdings showed overseas central banks bought $4.240 billion of Treasuries. Offshore central banks now hold $1.049 trillion-worth of Treasuries or more than 29 percent of the entire U.S. government debt held in public hands.
In contrast, overseas central banks cut back on agency debt, selling a net $1.171 billion-worth.
Marketable securities held in custody by the Fed for foreign official and international accounts (in Millions of dollars):