Treasury Department Finally Discloses Saudi Treasury Holdings

Under a freedom of information request, the Treasury department disclosed Saudi Arabia’s treasury holdings as $116.8 billion.

Last month, Saudi Arabia threatened to dump $750 billion in treasury holdings if Congress passed a bill allowing US citizens to file 911 claims against the Saudis.

Clearly the numbers don’t mesh. Who is telling the truth?

Please consider U.S. Discloses Saudi Arabia’s Treasuries Holdings for First Time.

The Treasury Department has 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, according to data the Treasury disclosed Monday in response to a Freedom-of-Information Act request. 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.

Yet the disclosure may bring more questions than answers, because Saudi Arabia’s foreign reserves amount to $587 billion, and central banks typically put about two-thirds of their coffers in dollars, according to International Monetary Fund data.

Some nations accumulate Treasuries in offshore financial centers, meaning the holdings show up under the data of other countries. For example, Belgium, which held $143 billion of U.S. government debt as of February, is home to Chinese custodial accounts, analysts say.

1970’s Decision

The U.S. started releasing data on foreign ownership of Treasuries in 1974. Since then, the Treasury’s policy has been to not disclose Saudi holdings, and it has instead grouped them with those of 14 other mostly OPEC nations, including Kuwait, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates, Bloomberg reported in January. The group held $281 billion as of February, down from a record of $298.4 billion in July.

For more than a hundred other countries, from China to the Vatican, the Treasury provides a detailed monthly breakdown of how much U.S. debt each owns. The figures for March are scheduled for release at 4 p.m. New York time Monday.

The question of Saudi holdings of Treasuries is gaining importance as the monarchy faces fiscal pressure from the decline in oil prices and costly wars in the Middle East.