U.S. Treasury Discloses For The First Time That Saudi Arabia Holds $116.8 billion In U.S. Government Debt As Of March

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Bloomberg: U.S. Discloses Saudi Holdings of Treasuries for First Time

* Kingdom held $116.8 billion as of March, Treasury data show
* Figures had been grouped with mostly OPEC nations since 1974

The Treasury Department released a breakdown of Saudi Arabia’s holdings of U.S. debt, after keeping the figures secret for more than four decades.

The stockpile of the world’s biggest oil exporter stood at $116.8 billion as of March, down almost 6 percent from a record in January, according to data the Treasury disclosed Monday in response to a Freedom-of-Information Act request submitted by Bloomberg News. The tally ranks Saudi Arabia among the top dozen foreign nations in terms of holdings of U.S. debt, and compares with China’s $1.3 trillion trove, and $1.1 trillion for Japan.

“The politics has always been secretive, so have their finances,” said David Ottaway, a Middle East Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, a research institute in Washington. “It does answer the question of how much they own, which is surprisingly not that much.”

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WNU Editor: This is a first .... and the question begs itself .... why make the disclosure now.