An Overview of U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Statistics on Multinational Companies

Statistics on multinational companies may be grouped into two broad categories: (1) those that pertain to cross-border transactions and positions between direct investors and direct investment enterprises (balance of payments and direct investment position data), and (2) those that pertain to MNC operations more broadly, including statistics on their domestic as well as international activities (financial and operating data). In the United States, BEA is the U.S. Government agency responsible for compiling and publishing both types of data. This note provides a brief history of BEA’s data on MNC’s, and describes some of the advantages associated with a single U.S. Government agency being responsible for compiling both types of data on MNC’s. Major U.S. Government providers of data on international trade or finance are identified in an appendix.