Data and Financial Journalist
Foreign investors held $8.8 trillion in U.S. Treasuries as of February 2025—a 10.2% increase from a year earlier, according to the recent U.S. Treasury data. Japan, China, and the U.K. remain the top holders of U.S. debt. Two charts show the major foreign holders as the national debt hits $36.1 trillion.
Greece has been struggling hard to meet the requirements needed to be a member in the Eurozone. Moreover, following the 2008 financial crisis in the US, Greece’s economy got smaller by 25% since 2009. Germany, France, Italy and Spain are the most important economies accounting for most of the Union’s GDP.
June 30th 2015 could be an important turning point for Greece: an exit or a repayment of the debt as it reaches its debt repayment deadline. A crisis in Greece will affect markets all across the globe. In fact, they are already reflected in the stock exchanges across the world. The country is heading for a default and market reactions are the first sign that nothing is going good with Greece. Clearly, market perceptions are that Greece will be unable to meet 1.6 billion euro of loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund. The widespread panic happened last week due to the failing talks between Greece and its creditors.
This probably is a situation which will be a loss in either case: if Greece exits, it could be a bigger issue for Eurozone and Greece will have to fight its own battles with no common currency nation by its side.