Washington :
India sharply trimmed exposure to US government securities, lowering the holding to $118.7 billion in November 2016 — the month which witnessed Donald Trump winning the US Presidential elecions. Asian economic majors China and Japan are stukk the two top holders of US government securities.
While Japan's holding touched $1.11 trillion, China was tad lower at $1.05 trillion in November 2016. Latest data compiled by the US Treasury Department showed that India reduced its holding by nearly $5 billion to $118.7 billion at the end of the month. In October, it was $123 billion.
In recent months, the level of India's holding of these securities has been fluctuating and it stood at $117.2 billion in June 2016. Among the BRIC nations, India has the third lowest exposure to American government securities after China and Brazil — which saw its holding touching $258.3 billion in November.
Russia's holding was at $86.6 billion. The US saw surprise victory of Republican candidate Donald Trump in the Presidential elections in November, and he took charge earlier this month.Meanwhile, official data revealed that the American economy, also the world's largest, saw its growth slowdown to 1.9% in the fourth quarter of 2016.
In the July-September period of 2016, GDP had expanded 3.5%.According to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), the deceleration in real GDP in the fourth quarter reflected a downturn in exports, an acceleration in imports, a deceleration in personal consumption expenditures, and a downturn in federal government spending.
However, these factors were partly offset by an upturn in residential fixed investment; an acceleration in private inventory investment; an upturn in state and local government spending, and an acceleration in nonresidential fixed investment, BEA said while releasing GDP numbers on Friday.
