FILE PHOTO: A banker employee counts the U.S. dollars at a bank in Qionghai City, south China's Hainan Province, Nov. 12, 2012. (Xinhua/Meng Zhongde)

WASHINGTON, March 15 (Xinhua) -- China's holdings of U.S. Treasuries increased for a second consecutive month in January to 1.126 trillion U.S. dollars, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

China, which remains the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasuries, held 1.123 trillion dollars of U.S. Treasuries in December, a slight rebound after a six-month decreasing streak.

In the meantime, Japan's holdings of U.S. Treasuries increased to 1.069 trillion dollars in January, up from the 1.042-trillion-dollar level in December.

Combined, China and Japan hold more than a third of the total foreign holdings of U.S. Treasuries.

When aggregating net foreign acquisitions of long-term securities, short-term U.S. securities and banking flows, the result was a 143.7-billion-dollar net foreign outflow of U.S. securities in January, a surge from 33.1 billion dollars a month earlier, the data showed.