The US Treasury Department recently announced that it sold 19.5% of its holdings in Citigroup common stock at a price of approximately $4.33 per share, which was not scheduled to stop until the next month. The US Treasury later stated that it would sell all of its shares in Citigroup by the end of this year. To rescue the financially troubled Citigroup back in late 2009, the US Treasury spent $2.5 billion to purchase shares of the group at a price of $3.25 per share, thus holding 7.7 billion shares of Citigroup's original common stock. According to Xinhua News Agency, on the evening of the 26th, the US Treasury Department announced the sale of 1.5 billion shares of Citigroup stock, raising $6.2 billion, marking another step in the US government's gradual exit from the financial rescue plan.