Russian investment in US Treasuries down $5.4 bln in June
WASHINGTON. Aug 16 (Interfax) - Russian investment in US Treasuries fell to $109.8 billion from $115.2 billion during June, says a joint report by the Russian Finance Ministry and the U.S. Federal Reserve System.
This was the eighth monthly drop in succession: the investment stood at $176.3 billion in October 2010.
Russia became one of the main UST investors in 2008, when it boosted this investment 3.5-fold to $116.4 billion from $32.6 billion.
China had the biggest UST holdings as of the end of June 2011 with $1.166 trillion ($1.1598 trillion at the end of May), followed by Japan with $911.0 billion ($912.4 billion). The UK was third with $349.5 billion ($346.8 billion), the group of oil exporters (Ecuador, Venezuela, Indonesia, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Algeria, Gabon, Libya and Nigeria) fourth with $229.6 billion, Brazil was fifth with $207.1 billion and Russia was ninth.
The Central Bank of Russia has said its international reserves grew 0.6% or $3.4 billion during June to $524.527 billion. They were $537.7 billion on August 5.