By: Mahmoud Gamal

Mubasher: The GCC’s holdings of US debt instruments dropped 1.09% month-on-month last November, registering $281.743 billion against $284.848 billion.

Saudi Arabia’s holdings of US government bonds inched down 0.82% to $169.9 billion by the end of November 2018, down from $171.3 billion in the prior month, according to the US Department of the Treasury’s data on Sunday.

The oil-rich kingdom is the largest GCC holder of US Treasuries.

The UAE’s holdings of US government bonds also fell to $56.3 billion in November 2018, compared to $57.7 billion in the previous month.

Investments of Kuwait and Bahrain in US debt instruments declined to $43.9 billion and $812 million in November, against $44.1 billion and $928 million, respectively in October 2018.

Qatar’s holdings of US government bonds remained stable at $1.228 billion in the eleventh months of 2018, compared to the month before.

On the other hand, Oman, the Middle East’s biggest non-OPEC producer, raised its holdings of US debt instruments to around $9.603 billion last November, against $9.592 billion a month earlier.

At the global level, China ranked the top holder of the US Treasury bonds with $1.121 trillion, followed by Japan with $1.036 trillion.

Translated by: Ahmed Shehata