WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- China's holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds in October hit the lowest in a year, but the country remained the largest foreign buyer of U.S. government debt, statistics released Monday by U.S. Treasury Department showed.

China's holdings of U.S. Treasuries totaled 1.139 trillion U.S. dollars in October, down by 12.5 billion dollars from the previous month.

The statistics also showed that Japan, the second largest foreign buyer, is a net seller of U.S. Treasuries in October, with its holdings slipping to a one-year low of 1.019 trillion dollars, down by 9.5 billion dollars from the previous month.

The two countries together still accounted for about a third of the total foreign holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds, which saw a net foreign outflow of 25.6 billion dollars in October.

Washington has increased the issuance of its government bonds since the massive corporate tax cut was enacted last December. Business insiders have warned of imbalance between demand and supply.

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