US investment in Indian securities falls sharply to $59bn in 2011

NEW DELHI: The US government’s investment in Indian securities, including equities and long term debt, declined more than 35 per cent to USD 59 billion last year compared to 2010.

The American gover nment held Indian securities worth USD 91.49 billion at the end of 2010 compared to holdings worth USD 59 billion last year, according to latest official data. The securities comprise equities, long term and short term debts. America’s holdings of Indian equities alone were worth USD 55 billion in 2011.

According to preliminary annual report on US holdings of foreign securities, America’s holdings of India’s long term and short term debts were worth USD 3 billion and USD 1 billion, respectively, last year.

The data is based on a survey jointly carried out by the US Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. In 2010, the US government held Indian equities to the tune of USD 86.45 billion and long term debt worth USD 4.4 billion. The holdings of short term debt was just USD 614 million.

“The stock of foreign securities for December 31, 2011, reported in this survey may not, for a number of reasons, correspond to the stock of foreign securities on December 31, 2010...,” the US Treasury said in the preliminary annual report. Overall, the US held foreign securities worth USD 6.84 trillion at the end of 2011, with overseas equities alone accounting for USD 4.5 trillion. At the end of 2010 too, the value of foreign securities was almost same at USD 6.76 trillion while the amount of overseas equities was slightly higher at USD 4.65 trillion.

In terms of America’s exposure to overseas securities, India was at the 26th position in 2011.

The maximum holding of the world’s largest economy last year was in UK securities at USD 989 billion, followed by Canada (USD 736 billion), Cayman Islands (709 billion), Japan (USD 509 billion), Australia (USD 334 billion) and France (USD 306 billion).

Other nations in the top ten were France (USD 306 billion), Switzerland (USD 292 billion), Germany (USD 266 billion), Netherlands (USD 242 billion) and Brazil (USD 196 billion).

Among the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), America had the highest exposure to Brazilian securities last year. This was followed by China (USD 77 billion), South Africa (USD 71 billion) and India (USD 59 billion). Details of Russia were not available.

(PTI)