India 12th top foreign holder of US govt bonds

As per the data, India is the 12th largest overseas holder of these securities, one place ahead of Saudi Arabia -- whose exposure has been made public for the first time in more than four decades.

Saudi Arabia's holding stood at USD 116.8 billion as on March 31.

Till now, Saudi Arabia's holdings were lumped together with that of other oil exporting nations, including Venezuela and Iraq.

In March, India owned American government securities to the tune of USD 118.9 billion whereas the same was at USD 118.8 billion in February.

The exposure had touched USD 119.8 billion in January.

Interestingly, the holdings of American government by Cayman Islands -- perceived as a tax haven -- touched USD 265 billion in March and was the third largest after China and Japan.

In terms of exposure, other countries ahead of India are Ireland, Brazil, Switzerland, the UK, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Belgium.

Among the BRIC grouping, the exposure of Brazil and Russia fell to USD 246.4 billion and USD 86 billion, respectively, in March.

Releasing the data, the Treasury Department said the sum total in March of all net foreign acquisitions of long-term and short term US securities as well as banking flows was a monthly net TIC (Treasury International Capital) outflow of USD 98.3 billion.

Of this, net foreign private outflows were USD 51.5 billion while and net foreign official outflows were USD 46.9 billion, it said in a release on Monday.

"Foreign residents increased their holdings of long-term US securities in March; net purchases were USD 64.7 billion.

Net purchases by private foreign investors were USD 83 billion, while net sales by foreign official institutions were USD 18.3 billion," the release said.