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EMBARGOED UNTIL RELEASE AT 8:30 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, June 28, 2022

BEA 22-27

U.S. International Investment Position, First Quarter 2022 and Annual Update

The U.S. net international investment position (IIP), the difference between U.S. residents’ foreign financial assets and liabilities, was –$17.75 trillion at the end of the first quarter of 2022, according to statistics released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). Assets totaled $34.00 trillion, and liabilities were $51.75 trillion. At the end of the fourth quarter, the net investment position was –$18.12 trillion. The net investment positions and components of assets and liabilities are presented in table 1.

U.S. Assets and Liabilities: End of quarter, not seasonally adjusted

The $375.8 billion change in the net investment position from the fourth quarter of 2021 to the first quarter of 2022 came from net financial transactions of –$251.8 billion and net other changes in position, such as price and exchange-rate changes, of $627.6 billion. Net other changes mostly reflected decreases in U.S. stock and bond prices that exceeded decreases in foreign stock and bond prices, which lowered the value of U.S. liabilities more than U.S. assets (table A).

COVID–19 Impact on First–Quarter 2022 International Investment Position

The global pandemic and the economic recovery continued to impact the IIP in the first quarter of 2022. The full economic effects of the COVID–19 pandemic cannot be quantified in the IIP statistics, because the impacts are generally embedded in source data and cannot be separately identified.

Table A. Quarterly Change in the U.S. Net International Investment Position
Billions of dollars, not seasonally adjusted

	End of quarter position, 2021:Q4	Change in position in 2022:Q1			End of quarter position, 2022:Q1
		Total	Attributable to:
		Total	Financial transactions	Other changes in position ¹
U.S. net international investment position	-18,124.3	375.8	-251.8	627.6	-17,748.5
Net position excluding financial derivatives	-18,144.2	-333.3	-257.6	590.9	-17,810.9
Financial derivatives other than reserves, net	19.9	42.5	5.8	36.8	62.4
U.S. assets	35,065.5	-1,066.3	(²)	(²)	33,999.2
Assets excluding financial derivatives	33,078.0	-1,337.3	367.8	-1,705.1	31,740.6
Financial derivatives other than reserves	1,987.5	271.0	(²)	(²)	2,258.5
U.S. liabilities	53,189.7	-1,442.1	(²)	(²)	51,747.6
Liabilities excluding financial derivatives	51,222.1	-1,670.6	625.4	-2,296.0	49,551.5
Financial derivatives other than reserves	1,967.6	228.5	(²)	(²)	2,196.1
1. Disaggregation of other changes in position into price changes, exchange-rate changes, and other changes in volume and valuation is presented for annual statistics released in March and revised in June each year. 2. Financial transactions and other changes in financial derivatives positions are available on a net basis; they are not separately available for U.S. assets and U.S. liabilities.

U.S. assets decreased by $1.07 trillion to a total of $34.00 trillion at the end of the first quarter, mostly reflecting price decreases in portfolio investment and direct investment assets. Portfolio investment assets decreased by $817.4 billion to $15.49 trillion, driven mainly by decreases in foreign stock and bond prices. Direct investment assets decreased by $557.9 billion to $10.41 trillion, driven mainly by decreases in foreign stock prices that lowered the market value of direct investment equity assets.

U.S. liabilities decreased by $1.44 trillion to a total of $51.75 trillion at the end of the first quarter, mostly reflecting price decreases in portfolio investment and direct investment liabilities. Portfolio investment liabilities decreased by $1.27 trillion to $27.21 trillion, driven mainly by decreases in U.S. stock and bond prices. Direct investment liabilities decreased by $682.6 billion to $14.13 trillion, driven mainly by decreases in U.S. stock prices that lowered the market value of direct investment equity liabilities.

U.S. Assets by Category: End of quarter, not seasonally adjusted

U.S. Liabilities by Category: End of quarter, not seasonally adjusted

Annual Update of the IIP Accounts

The statistics in this release reflect the annual update of the U.S. IIP Accounts. With this update, BEA has incorporated newly available and revised source data for 2019–2021 (table 2). In addition, there are two updates that are beyond the scope of updated source data:

The investment positions and financial transactions for short-term portfolio investment assets for 2012–2021 have been revised to incorporate improved methodology and source data for foreign commercial paper and other short-term securities assets.
For long-term portfolio investment assets and liabilities, BEA has revised the investment positions and financial transactions for 2019–2021 to address a large series break in the source data provided to BEA on holdings of long-term portfolio investment that resulted from unusually large data revisions by respondents on the monthly “Aggregate Holdings of Long-Term Securities by U.S. and Foreign Residents” (SLT) report for June 2021. For more information about the SLT revisions, see footnote 5 in the “Footnotes and Notices” section of “Securities (B): Portfolio Holdings of U.S. and Foreign Securities | U.S. Department of the Treasury.”

Newly Available and Revised Source Data: Key Providers and Years Affected

Agency	Data	Years affected
BEA	Benchmark, annual, and quarterly direct investment surveys (direct investment assets and liabilities)	2019–2021
U.S. Department of the Treasury	Aggregate Holdings of Long-Term Securities by U.S. and Foreign Residents (portfolio investment assets and liabilities)	2019–2021
	Foreign-Residents’ Holdings of U.S. Securities, including Selected Money Market Instruments (portfolio investment liabilities)	2021
	U.S. Ownership of Foreign Securities, including Selected Money Market Instruments (portfolio investment assets)	2020–2021
	Reports by Financial Institutions of Liabilities to, and Claims on, Foreign Residents by U.S. Residents (portfolio investment and other investment assets and liabilities)	2019–2021
	Reports of Liabilities to, and Claims on, Unaffiliated Foreign Residents by U.S. Resident Non-Financial Institutions (portfolio investment and other investment assets and liabilities)	2021
	Reports of Holdings of, and Transactions in, Financial Derivatives Contracts with Foreign Residents (financial derivatives assets and liabilities)	2020–2021

With this annual update of the IIP Accounts, BEA has added the two IIP tables 2.2 and 4.1, which were introduced in the IIP release on December 30, 2021, to the existing standard IIP table presentation in BEA’s Interactive Data Application and Data Application Programming Interface.

Table 2.2, which was introduced with statistics on U.S. special purpose entities (SPEs), has been expanded to include foreign SPEs for 2019–2021. Table 2.2 features annual statistics on direct investment positions in foreign and U.S. SPEs, which are legal entities with little or no employment or physical presence.

Table 4.1 has been updated to include new statistics for the first quarter of 2022 and revised statistics for the first quarter of 2020 to the fourth quarter of 2021. Table 4.1 features quarter-end position statistics on U.S. debt positions by currency, sector, and maturity for U.S. assets and liabilities.

More information on the annual update is available in “Preview of the 2022 Annual Update of the International Economic Accounts” in the April 2022 issue of the Survey of Current Business, and additional information will be published in July. The U.S. International Economic Accounts: Concepts and Methods has also been updated to reflect changes implemented with this annual update.

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Next release: September 28, 2022, at 8:30 a.m. EDT
U.S. International Investment Position, Second Quarter 2022

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Full Release & Tables (PDF)

Tables Only (Excel)

Release Highlights (PDF)

U.S. Direct Investment Abroad Statistics

Foreign Direct Investment in the United States Statistics

Technical

Christopher Gohrband

(301) 278-9564

Christopher.Gohrband@bea.gov

Technical

Elena Nguyen

301-278-9555

Elena.Nguyen@bea.gov

Direct Investment

Doug Weinberg

301-278-9590

Douglas.Weinberg@bea.gov

Media (BEA)

Connie O'Connell

301-278-9003

Connie.OConnell@bea.gov

Resources

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Historical time series for these estimates can be accessed in BEA's Interactive Data Application.
Access BEA data by registering for BEA's Data Application Programming Interface.
For more on BEA’s statistics, see BEA’s online journal, the Survey of Current Business.
For upcoming economic indicators, see BEA's news release schedule.
More information on the International Investment Position Accounts and a description of the estimation methods used to compile them is provided in U.S. International Economic Accounts: Concepts and Methods.

Definitions

The international investment position (IIP) is a statistical balance sheet that presents the dollar value of U.S. financial assets and liabilities with respect to foreign residents at a specific point in time. BEA presents IIP statistics at the end of a quarter or year (March, June, September, and December). For the March and June releases, BEA also presents statistics on changes in the yearend position that are disaggregated into financial transactions, price changes, exchange-rate changes, and changes in volume and valuation not included elsewhere (n.i.e.).

The U.S. net international investment position is defined as the value of U.S. assets less the value of U.S. liabilities.

Financial transactions are transactions between U.S. residents and nonresidents in financial assets and liabilities. They are also recorded in the financial account of the International Transactions Accounts (ITAs). See "Related statistics" below.

Other changes in position are changes in the value of U.S. assets or liabilities arising from any source besides a financial transaction. Other changes in position include price changes, exchange-rate changes, and changes in volume and valuation n.i.e.

Price changes (only presented for annual statistics in the March and June news releases) are changes in the value of an asset or liability due to changes in the market price of a financial instrument.

Exchange-rate changes (only presented for annual statistics in the March and June news releases) are changes in the value of foreign-currency denominated assets and liabilities due to changes in the values of foreign currencies relative to the value of the U.S. dollar.

Changes in volume and valuation n.i.e. (only presented for annual statistics in the March and June news releases) reflect changes in position due to year-to-year shifts in the composition of reporting panels, the incorporation of more comprehensive annual and benchmark survey results, and revaluations (holding gains and losses) on assets and liabilities that are not explained by price changes or exchange-rate changes.

Functional categories are the primary classification system used in the IIP Accounts and in the financial account of the ITAs. The five functional categories are direct investment, portfolio investment, financial derivatives other than reserves, other investment, and reserve assets. While the functional categories are based on features that are relevant for understanding cross-border financial transactions and positions, they also take into account some aspects of the relationship between transactors and the economic motivation for the investment. Within the functional categories, the IIP Accounts are classified by type of financial instrument.

Direct investment is a category of cross-border investment associated with a resident in one economy having control or a significant degree of influence on the management of an enterprise resident in another economy. Ownership or control of 10 percent or more of the voting securities of an entity in another economy is the threshold for separating direct investment from other types of investment. Direct investment positions include positions in equity and debt instruments. BEA's IIP statistics feature the market value measure of direct investment positions, a measure that values owner's equity at current-period prices using indexes of stock market prices.

Portfolio investment consists of cross-border positions involving equity and investment fund shares and debt securities, excluding those included in direct investment or reserve assets. Debt securities are classified by original maturity (short term versus long term at the time of issue).

Financial derivatives other than reserves consist of cross-border positions arising from financial contracts that are linked to underlying financial instruments, commodities, or indicators. Positions in financial derivatives consist of contracts with positive and negative fair values. A contract with a positive fair value is a U.S. asset and represents the amount that a foreign resident would have to pay to a U.S. counterparty if the contract were terminated or settled. A contract with a negative fair value is a U.S. liability and represents the amount that a U.S. resident would have to pay to a foreign counterparty if the contract were terminated or settled. The gross positive (negative) fair value is the sum across all contracts with positive (negative) fair values. Fair values differ from notional values, which are the underlying amounts used to calculate payments on contracts. Gross positive and gross negative fair values for financial derivatives positions are available separately in table 1. However, transactions and other changes in financial derivatives positions are only available for the net position in financial derivatives. For other changes in position for financial derivatives, statistics are not separately available for price changes, exchange rate changes, and changes in volume and valuation n.i.e.

Other investment includes cross-border positions other than those included in direct investment, portfolio investment, financial derivatives, and reserve assets. Other investment positions consist of positions in other equity (equity not in the form of securities), currency and deposits, loans, insurance technical reserves, trade credit and advances, and, for liabilities, special drawing rights allocations.

Reserve assets are those external assets that are readily available to and controlled by U.S. monetary authorities for meeting balance-of-payments financing needs, for intervention in exchange markets to affect the currency exchange rate, and for other related purposes such as maintaining confidence in the currency and the economy and serving as a basis for foreign borrowing. The major published components are monetary gold, International Monetary Fund (IMF) special drawing rights, reserve position in the IMF, and other reserve assets.

Release and update schedule

Preliminary quarterly IIP statistics are released in March, June, September, and December, approximately 90 days after the end of the reference quarter. These statistics are updated the following quarter to incorporate new and revised source data. Quarterly statistics are open for revision for at least the prior 3 years in annual updates released in June. Preliminary annual statistics are released in March reflecting positions at the end of the fourth quarter of the previous year. These annual statistics are open for revision for at least the prior 3 years in subsequent annual updates.

Related statistics

The IIP statistics comprise one part of a broader set of U.S. International Economic Accounts that, taken together, provide a comprehensive, integrated, and detailed picture of U.S. international economic activities.

The ITA statistics are released quarterly. Financial transactions reported in the financial account of the ITAs are one type of change in position recorded in the IIP. Financial transactions are transactions between U.S. residents and nonresidents for direct investment, portfolio investment, other investment, reserve assets, and financial derivatives.

Statistics on direct investment and multinational enterprises (MNEs) include annual statistics on the activities of U.S. MNEs and U.S. affiliates of foreign MNEs, detailed annual and quarterly statistics on direct investment, and annual statistics on new foreign direct investment in the United States.

Statistics on international services include detailed annual information on trade in services and on services supplied through the channel of direct investment by affiliates of MNEs.

U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services, released by BEA and the U.S. Census Bureau, provides monthly statistics on trade in goods and services.