Holdings of Treasuries slide to 13-year low

China slashed holdings of US Treasuries for a seventh consecutive month in February to a nearly 13-year low, US Treasury Department data showed.

China's holdings slid to US$848.8 billion (HK$6.62 trillion) in February, the lowest since May 2010, from US$859.4 billion in January,

Still, China remains the second largest holder of US Treasuries, while Japan still ranks first, with holdings of US$1.08 trillion in February.

Overall foreign holdings of US Treasuries also fell to US$7.34 trillion during the period, compared with US$7.4 trillion in the previous month.

This came as a trend of de-dollarization rose recently with various countries taking steps to reduce their reliance on the US currency

Bangladesh and Russia have agreed to use the yuan to settle payment for a nuclear plant Moscow is building in the South Asian country, Reuters reported earlier.

This came after China and Brazil reached an agreement earlier to use their own currencies to settle trade instead of the US dollar.

But UBS said yesterday that the global economy will remain US dollar-centric for years to come despite the recent trend.

Meanwhile, the US dollar fell against most major currencies yesterday after better-than-forecast growth data from China.

The US dollar index, which measures the currency against a basket of currencies, fell 0.4 percent to 101.67, having risen over 1 percent in the last two trading sessions. The offshore yuan was a touch higher at 6.877 per US dollar.