After keeping it secret for more than four decades, the United States' Treasury Department has revealed the holdings of U.S. debt by Saudi Arabia, an amount totaling $116.8 billion as of March.
The data was revealed after a Freedom-of-Information Act request was filed by Bloomberg, also showing that the amount held by the kingdom peaked in January at $123.6, dropping by 6 percent since then. However, the amount has still risen significantly from $82.7 billion in 2014.
While this amount places Saudi Arabia in the top dozen foreign nations in terms of holdings of U.S. debt, compared to China's $1.3 trillion and Japan's $1.1 trillion, the kingdom's holdings are less than some experts expected.
"The politics has always been secretive, so have their finances," David Ottaway, a Middle East Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, a research institute in Washington D.C., told Bloomberg . "It does answer the question of how much they own, which is surprisingly not that much."
Still, compared to other Arab nations, Saudi Arabia is the clear leader with the United Arab Emirates coming in second, holding $62.5 billion.
Since 1974, the U.S. Treasury has released data on foreign ownership of debt. However, as a result of the 1973 oil shock, following the Arab embargo, the U.S. made concessions with Saudi Arabia and only reported the kingdom's holdings grouped with 14 other nations, mostly members of OPEC.
Here is a ranking of U.S. debt held by Arab oil-producing nations according to the data released to Bloomberg on Monday.
,- Saudi Arabia: $116.8 billion
- UAE: $63.5 billion
- Kuwait: $31.2 billion
- Oman: $15.9 billion
- Iraq: $13.4 billion
- Qatar: $3.7 billion
- Bahrain $1.2 billion
- Algeria: $700 million