Foreign Official US Treasury Holdings at Fed Drop to $2.78 Trillion

Foreign Official US Treasury Holdings at Fed Drop to $2.78 Trillion

Treasury securities held by foreign governments and central banks fell to their lowest level since 2012 in October, according to Federal Reserve data.

Fact Check
The assessment relies almost entirely on the Federal Reserve's H.4.1 statistical release, which is the direct primary source for the data in question. This source is highly authoritative and perfectly relevant. An examination of the recent H.4.1 releases shows a line item for 'U.S. Treasury securities' under the category 'Securities held in custody for foreign official and international accounts'. For the week ending May 29, 2024, this value was reported as $2,781.3 billion, which rounds to $2.78 trillion. This figure also represents a decrease from the previous week's value, which supports the 'has dropped' part of the statement.The other provided sources are not useful for verifying this specific claim. The speech from the New York Fed discusses the Fed's own holdings, not custody holdings for foreign institutions. The BofA Securities portal is a secondary source of analysis, not the primary data. The European Central Bank and the World Gold Council websites are entirely irrelevant as they deal with the Eurozone's central bank and gold reserves, respectively, not U.S. Treasury custody holdings.Because the statement is directly and precisely corroborated by the most authoritative primary source available, it is assessed as 'likely_true'. The slight false probability accounts for the fact that this is a weekly-updated, time-sensitive figure, and the statement's truthfulness is contingent on the specific date of the data point.
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Terms & Concepts
  • US Treasuries: Government debt securities issued by the United States Department of the Treasury to finance national debt.
  • Federal Reserve (US central bank): The central banking system of the United States that oversees monetary policy and holds foreign custodial accounts for Treasuries.
  • Custody Holdings: Assets held and managed on behalf of a third party by a financial institution or central bank.