EFTA01779592

From: David Stern Sent: Tuesday, March 1, 2011 1:09 AM To: Jeffrey Epstein Subject: China's holdings of US Treasury: US$ 1.16 trillion China's holdings of long-term U. S. Treasury securities totaled 1.16 =rillion U.S. dollars at the end of December 2010, according to an =nnual revision report released by the U.S. Treasury Department on =onday. The figure was an increase of 268.5 billion dollars, or 30 percent from =n estimate the government reported on Feb. 15. The U.S. Treasury made the change to its monthly report based on more =ccurate information it obtains in an annual survey. Foreign holdings of U.S. long-term securities reflect demand for U.S. =reasury obligations and other assets including stocks and government =gency debt, a key to funding the massive U.S. balance of payments =eficit with the rest of the world. The report showed that China, the largest holder of U.S. Treasury =ecurities, reduced its holdings by 4 billion dollars in December from =.164 trillion dollars in November. In the monthly report released two weeks ago, it said that China trimmed =ts holdings from 895.6 billion dollars in November to 891.6 billion =ollars in December. In the new report, Japan, the second largest foreign holder of U.S. =overnment debt, raised its holdings to 882.3 billion dollars in =ecember. That was 1.3 billion dollars less than the estimate in the =onthly report. Britain, the third largest owner of U.S. debt, boosted its holdings to =72.1 billion dollars in December from 242.5 billion dollars in =ovember. Britain's holdings were revised lower by 269.2 billion dollars from the =onthly report. Total foreign holdings of U.S. long-term securities in December 2010 =eached 4.44 trillion dollars, up from 4.41 trillion dollars from =ovember. The new figure in year end 2010 is 70 billion dollars more =han the government's previous estimate in its monthly report. The Treasury Department refused to comment on the revised figures. The debt figures are closely watched at a time when more and more =mericans believe that the U.S. soaring debt is unsustainable. The =ederal debt has surpassed 14 trillion at the end of 2010 and the =ederal government is at the edge of bankruptcy if the Congress does not =ncrease the debt ceiling which is 14.3 trillion dollars before the =eadline of March 4. U.S. federal budget deficit reached 1.29 trillion dollars in the fiscal =ear 2010 ended Sept. 30. It recorded a historic high of 1.42 trillion =ollars in fiscal year 2009 when the economy was hit hard by the =inancial crisis. According to President Barack Obama's fiscal year 2012 budget which was =ent to Congress earlier this month, the U.S. federal deficit in 2011 is =xpected to hit a new record of 1.65 trillion dollars. EFTA_R1_00097113 EFTA01779592 Xinhua New Agency, 1 March 2011=?xml version=.0" encoding=TF-8"?> <IDOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/Propertylist-1.0.dtd"> <plist version=.0"> <dict> <key>date-last-viewed</key> <integer>0</integer> <key>date-received</key> <integer>1298941727</integer> <key>flags</key> <integer>8623750145</integer> <key>gmail-label-ids</key> <array> <integer>22</integer> <integer>2</integer> </array> <key>remote-id</key> <string>138382</string> </dict> </plist> 2 EFTA_R1_00097114 EFTA01779593