China regains spot as largest foreign US creditor

Beijing

CHINA purchased the most US Treasuries in six years in June, vaulting past Japan as the largest overseas lender to the US government, possibly taking advantage of recent weakness in the dollar in a rising US interest rate environment.

Tuesday's report from the US Treasury Department also signalled that China has steadily ratcheted up its accumulation of US government debt as it has burned far less of its foreign exchange reserves this year to defend the yuan currency.

In 2016, China spent nearly US$320 billion of foreign exchange reserves in an effort to stem the yuan's depreciation …