China, the main creditor of the United States on Thursday urged Washington to put public finance in order. “We hope the U.S. will adopt effective measures to improve their fiscal position, ” said the spokesman of Chinese Foreign Ministry Hong Lei.
He called on Washington to make efforts to “preserve the stability of international financial markets and promote a healthy and stable development of world economy. ” China remains by far the largest holder of U.S. Treasuries (1,145 billion in March), although it reduced its portfolio in recent months. The rating agency Fitch said Thursday it would lower the credit rating of the United States “in the highly unlikely” a failure to pay the U.S. Treasury.
Fitch, like its rivals Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, marks the long-term debt of the U.S. federal government the best guarantees of repayment, which reflects the notes ‘AAA’. In case of default of payment, partial or temporary, Fitch said it will downgrade the bonds to “B +” which indicates a fairly low security for repayment in the long term.