China and the Rest of the World Load Up on U.S. Debt

China returned to purchasing U.S. government debt for the first time in six months in March, write Dow Jones Newswires’s Tom Barkley and Ian Talley, citing this morning’s International Capital System report from the U.S. Treasury Department.

China purchases $17.7 billion of U.S. Treasuries for a total of $895 billion. On the whole, foreign net purchases, both public and private, of U.S. debt, including Treasuries but also corporates, rose from to $143 billion in March from $8 billion a year earlier.