Foreign holders of United States treasury debt
Of the total 7.55 trillion held by foreign countries, Japan and Mainland China held the greatest portions. China held 1.05 trillion U.S. dollars in U.S. securities. Japan held 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars worth.
According to the Treasury Department, foreign governments hold about $7.7 trillion in U.S. debt, though no country holds more than 5% of the total. As of the end of November, the most recent data available, Japan was the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt, with $1.3 trillion.
Foreign governments who have purchased U.S. treasuries include China, Japan, Brazil, Ireland, the U.K. and others. China represents 29 percent of all treasuries issued to other countries, which corresponds to $1.18 trillion. Japan holds the equivalent of $1.03 trillion in treasuries.
Most of the federal government's debt is owned by federal trust funds and domestic investors in the United States. Foreign investors, including other governments, also own part of the debt.
Repercussions. The repercussions for China of such an offloading would be worse. An excess supply of U.S. dollars would lead to a decline in USD rates, making RMB valuations higher. It would increase the cost of Chinese products, making them lose their competitive price advantage.
Brunei is one of the countries with the lowest debt. It has a debt to GDP ratio of 2.46 percent among a population of 439,000 people, which makes it the world's country with the lowest debt. Brunei is a very small country located in southeast Asia.
At the end of 2020, China's foreign debt, including U.S. dollar debt, stood at roughly $2.4 trillion. Corporate debt is $27 trillion, while the country's total public debt exceeds 300 percent of GDP.
Foreign holdings
Including both private and public debt holders, the top three December 2020 national holders of American public debt are Japan ($1.2 trillion or 17.7%), China ($1.1 trillion or 15.2%), and the United Kingdom ($0.4 trillion or 6.2%).
Breaking Down Ownership of US Debt
China owns about $1.1 trillion in U.S. debt, or a bit more than the amount Japan owns. Whether you're an American retiree or a Chinese bank, American debt is considered a sound investment.
If it called in its debt, U.S. interest rates and prices could rise, slowing U.S. economic growth. On the other hand, if China called in its debt, the demand for the dollar could plummet. This dollar collapse could disrupt international markets even more than the 2008 financial crisis.
The federal net debt rose by $253.4 billion in 2020 to reach $942.5 billion or 42.7% of GDP, compared with 29.8% in 2019.
President Andrew Jackson Cuts Debt to Zero
By selling federally owned western lands and blocking spending on infrastructure projects, Jackson paid off the national debt after six years in office.
As of 2022, the Japanese public debt is estimated to be approximately US$12.20 trillion US Dollars (1.4 quadrillion yen), or 266% of GDP, and is the highest of any developed nation. 45% of this debt is held by the Bank of Japan.
The financial position of the United States includes assets of at least $269.6 trillion (1576% of GDP) and debts of $145.8 trillion (852% of GDP) to produce a net worth of at least $123.8 trillion (723% of GDP) as of Q1 2014.
The U.S. debt is the total federal financial obligation owed to the public and intragovernmental departments. The U.S. national debt is so big because Congress continues both deficit spending and tax cuts.
For its part, China owned 191,000 acres worth $1.9 billion as of 2019. ... Indeed, there has been a tenfold expansion of Chinese ownership of farmland in the United States in less than a decade. Six states — Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Dakota and Oklahoma — currently ban foreign ownership of farmland.
Japan, with its population of 127,185,332, has the highest national debt in the world at 234.18% of its GDP, followed by Greece at 181.78%. Japan's national debt currently sits at ¥1,028 trillion ($9.087 trillion USD).
In 2018 , the Center for Global Development found that Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, the Maldives, Mongolia, Montenegro, Pakistan and Tajikistan – countries among the poorest in their respective regions — will owe more than half all their foreign debt to China.
The World Bank gets its funding from rich countries, as well as from the issuance of bonds on the world's capital markets. The World Bank serves two mandates: To end extreme poverty, by reducing the share of the global population that lives in extreme poverty to 3% by 2030.
What happens if the U.S. defaults? If Congress doesn't suspend or raise the debt ceiling, the government would not be able to borrow additional funds to meet its obligations, including interest payments to bondholders. ... The dollar's value could collapse, and the U.S. economy would most likely sink back into recession.
United States - public debt by month 2020/21
In December 2021, the public debt of the United States was around 29.62 trillion U.S. dollars, around 1.87 trillion more than a year earlier, when it was around 27.75 trillion U.S. dollars.