India`s exposure to US government securities crosses $123 billion in July

Washington: Steeply increasing its exposure, India's holdings of American government bonds touched a high of USD 123.7 billion in July making it the 12th largest holder of such securities.

There has been a mixed trend in terms of India's holdings of these securities in recent months amid the world's largest economy seeing improved growth prospects.

In July, China's exposure stood at USD 1.22 trillion, followed by Japan with holdings to the tune of USD 1.15 trillion.

Latest data available with the US Treasury Department shows that India raised its exposure by little over USD 6 billion to USD 123.7 billion in July.

The same stood at USD 117.2 billion in June, slightly lower than USD 118.2 billion seen in the preceding month. Prior to that, the country's holdings had touched a high of USD 121.6 billion in April while the exposure stood at USD 119.8 billion in January this year.

Among the BRIC nations, India has the third highest holdings of US government securities after China and Brazil (USD 254.1 billion). In July, Russia had trimmed its exposure to USD 88.2 billion.

Apart from China and Japan, other countries in the top ten are Ireland (3), Cayman Islands (4), Brazil (5), Switzerland (6), Luxembourg (7), the UK (8), Taiwan (9) and Hong Kong (10), according to the data.

At the 11th position is Belgium.

The US, which is the world's largest economy, is witnessing improved growth.

The country's real GDP rose to 1.4 per cent in the second quarter of this year, according to the third estimate released by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis last month.

As per the second estimate, the GDP grew 1.1 per cent in April-June period.

In the first three months of 2016, the economy had expanded 0.8 percent