December 2011 U.S. Treasury Statement and Debt Overview

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Outlays of $325.9 billion and receipts of $240.0 billion added $86.0 billion to the federal budget deficit in December. The federal debt held by the public stood at $15.223 trillion at the end of December.
 

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Foreigners held $4.751 trillion, or 31 percent of the U.S. public debt at the end of November. China remained the largest foreign creditor ($1.133 trillion). Japan was the biggest buyer in both absolute and percentage change terms ($59.9 billion; 6.1 percent) in November, followed by the United Kingdom ($18.2 billion; 4.4 percent). The U.K. is often considered a proxy for China, which sold $1 billion in November.
 

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Even the Federal Reserve trimmed its holdings of U.S. Treasury securities slightly (-$6 billion, or -$72 billion annualized) in November.
 

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According to the Treasury International Capital (TIC) accounting system, net flows into the United States for all types of investments amounted to $48.6 billion in November; that brought the three-month moving average to $24.0 billion.
 

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Delving into the TIC report details reveals that long- and short-term U.S. public debt saw net inflows. Long-term private equities, by contrast, saw net outflows.