U.S. has $124 billion invested in Korean market
The United States held $124 billion worth of Korean securities as of the end of last year, the 11th-largest holdings in a foreign country, according to the latest portfolio released by the U.S. Treasury.The holdings break down to $114 billion in equities and $10 billion in long-term debt. Short-term debt securities amounted to $213 million.
The trend, shown in a release dated Nov. 30, has been a gradual increase in the market value of U.S. holdings in Korea’s long-term securities. The value in December 2005 was $118.5 billion, up from $73.5 billion at the end of 2004 and $53 billion at the end of 2003.
The value of equities has also been rising. It increased from $49 billion as of December 2003 to $66.6 billion at the end of 2004 and to $110 billion by the end of 2005.
But the U.S. has lost in long-term debt securities, the portfolio showed.
Their market value started out at $10.8 billion in 1997 and plummeted to $5 billion at the next measurement in December 2001. It went down further to $4.2 billion at the end of 2003 before reaching $10 billion last year.
As of the end of 2006, the U.S. held $7 billion of the long-term debt securities in greenbacks, $2.3 billion in Korean won, $85 million in euros and $11 million in Japanese yen.
The total value of the U.S. foreign securities portfolio at the end of 2006 was measured at nearly $6 trillion, up from $4.6 trillion a year before.
The largest portion was in Britain ($1 trillion), followed by Japan ($596 billion) and Canada ($478 billion).
Yonhap
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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