China, Belgium lead foreigners' offloading in US Treasuries

Foreigners offloaded US Treasuries in a record volume of $55.2 billion in October. After the devaluation of Yuan, China has started selling its US debt in supporting the currency.

China is the largest foreign owner of US Treasuries. The foreign holdings in US Treasuries declined in October showing the lowest since summer 2014. The net foreign holding of US Treasuries declined to an all-time low in October 2015.

Belgium is considered by forex analysts as a transit point for China's transactions in US Treasuries. Euroclear is a Belgium-based financial services company engaged in securities transactions and safekeeping. Other countries also sold long-term US Treasuries.

However, data was not clear more specifically on country-wise data. Since 2014, China sold US Treasuries to the tune of $600 billion.

However, the holdings of US Treasuries held by China rose by $1.7 billion to $1.27 trillion in August. And those in Belgium dropped by $44.8 billion to $110.7 billion. According to the data from the US Treasuries, China is offloading its US debt to recover from the Yuan devaluation in August, as reported by Taipei Times.

After increasing by $17.4 billion in September, the foreign net sales of US Treasuries rose to all-time high of $55.2 billion in October. The previous record of net selling was $55 billion in January. The total foreign holdings of US Treasuries in October declined to $6,046.3 trillion the lowest since summer 2014.

Foreign countries sold $41.1 billion net sales in US Treasuries while China was leading it. After the China's devaluation of Yuan, the pressure on US Treasuries continues to go up. According to a report by The Unhived Mind III, it's predicted that resumption of Treasury selling in the months to come.

However, The Chinese and Belgian holdings were unchanged, according to TIC data, as the dragon countries moderated its defense of Yuan. China since 2014 sold US Treasuries to the tune of $600 billion.

Fearing the rate hike announcement by the US Federal Reserve, other countries preferred to offload US Treasuries, as reported by Zero Hedge. If Fed hikes rate, then it'll pressurize the prices lower. The surge in US dollar and a slump in commodity prices will further put more pressure on foreign reserves managers to liquidate US Treasury holdings.

Though Belgium is a transit point for China transactions, assets in the third country wouldn't be considered as real ownership. The US Treasury data includes a disclaimer that states "a nation's assets in a custodial account in the third country don't reflect the true ownership of securities."

Hence looking at holdings attributed to individual nations can be misleading, said analysts. "There's no other buyer that would have the incentive to go through Belgium," says Aaron Kohli, a fixed-income strategist at Bank of Montreal.