China's Holdings of U.S. Securities: Implications for the U.S. Economy; Congressional rept

摘要

Given its relatively low savings rate, the U.S. economy depends heavily on foreign capital inflows from countries with high savings rates (such as China) to help promote growth and to find the federal budget deficit. China has intervened heavily in currency markets to limit the yuan's appreciation. As a result, China has become the world's largest and fastest growing holder of foreign exchange reserves (FER), which totaled $ 1.5 trillion at the end of 2007. China has invested a large share of its FER in U.S. securities, which, as of June 2007, totaled $922 billion, making China the 2nd largest foreign holder of U.S. securities (after Japan). These securities include long term Treasury debt, U.S. agency debt, U.S. corporate debt, U.S. equities, and short term debt.