China cuts holdings of US Treasury securities

China, the US's second-largest foreign creditor after Japan, cut its holdings of US Treasury securities for six consecutive months in September to $778.1 billion, data from the US Department of the Treasury showed on Tuesday.

Down by $27.3 billion from the previous month, the September figure also marked the lowest level of the country's holdings since June 2009, when the reading came in at $776.4 billion.

Since April last year, China's holdings have been kept shy of $1 trillion, and the new monthly reading was the first one in 14 years to be lower than $800 billion.

The country reduced its holdings for seven straight months until February and continued cutting them after a slight increase in March.

Japan cut its holdings by $28.5 billion, to around $1.09 trillion in September, marking the largest reduction by itself in a month since April.

The United Kingdom, the third-largest foreign holder of US debt, also slashed its holdings by $29.2 billion in September to $668.9 billion.