India's exposure to US securities touch a high of $124 billion

Washington D.C.: India increased its holding of American government securities to USD 124.1 billion at the end of April.

This is also the highest level since July 2016 when the exposure stood at USD 123.7 billion.

At the end of April, Japan had the maximum holding of USD 1.106 trillion, followed by China with USD 1.092 trillion.

The latest data available with the US Treasury Department show that India's exposure jumped by USD 7 billion to USD 124.1 billion in April. The country had holding to the tune of USD 117.1 billion in March.

Among the BRIC nations, India had the third largest exposure to the US government securities after China and Brazil. Brazil's exposure stood at USD 267.7 billion in April.

During the same period, Russia's holding of the securities rose to USD 104.9 billion.

In a release earlier this month, the Treasury Department said foreign residents increased their holdings of US Treasury bills by USD 7.2 billion in April.

"Foreign resident holdings of all dollar-denominated short-term US securities and other custody liabilities increased by USD 26 billion," it added.

India has hiked its exposure to the securities amid the US economy seeing relatively better economic growth trends.

"Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 1.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2017," as per the latest estimate from the Bureau of Economic Analysis that was released last month.