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Report On U.S. Portfolio Holdings Of Foreign Securities At End-Year 2009

Date 29/10/2010

The findings from an annual survey of U.S. portfolio holdings of foreign securities at year-end 2009 were released today and posted on the Treasury web site at (http://www.treas.gov/tic/fpis.html).

The survey was undertaken jointly by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. 

A complementary survey measuring foreign holdings of U.S. securities also is conducted annually.  Data from the most recent such survey, which reports on securities held on June 30, 2010, are currently being processed. Preliminary results are expected to be reported on February 28, 2011.

Overall Results

This survey measured the value of U.S. portfolio holdings of foreign securities at year-end 2009 of approximately $6.0 trillion, with $4.0 trillion held in foreign equity, $1.6 trillion held in foreign long-term debt securities (original term-to-maturity in excess of one year), and $0.4 trillion held in foreign short-term debt securities.  The previous such survey, conducted as of year-end 2008, measured U.S. holdings of approximately $4.3 trillion, with $2.7 trillion held in foreign equity, $1.3 trillion held in foreign long-term debt securities and $0.3 trillion held in foreign short-term debt securities. The increase in the value of U.S. portfolio holdings between the two surveys primarily reflects valuation changes in foreign equity during 2009.

U.S. portfolio holdings of foreign securities by country at the end of 2009 were the largest for the United Kingdom ($958 billion), followed by Canada ($540 billion), and Japan ($419 billion) (see Table 2). These three countries attracted about one-third of the total U.S. portfolio investment. 

The surveys are part of an internationally-coordinated effort under the auspices of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to improve the measurement of portfolio asset holdings.
Table 1.  U.S. holdings of foreign securities, by type of security, as of survey dates[1]

(Billions of dollars)

 

Type of Security

Dec. 31, 2008

Dec. 31, 2009

 

 

 

Long-term Securities

4,009

5,589

                Equity

2,748

3,995

                Long-term debt

1,261

1,594

Short-term debt securities

282

387

 

 

 

Total

4,291

5,977

 

U.S. Portfolio Investment by Country

Table 2.  U.S. holdings of foreign securities, by country of issuer and type of security, for the countries attracting the most U.S. portfolio investment, as of December 31, 2009

(Billions of dollars, except as noted)

 

 

Country or region

         Total

        Equity

Long-Term Debt

Short-Term Debt

1

United Kingdom

958

562

240

156

2

Canada

540

295

220

  26

3

Japan

419

371

  41

    8

4

Cayman Islands

373

148

217

    8

5

France

362

251

  82

  30

6

Switzerland

305

298

    6

    1

7

Germany

294

193

  80

  21

8

Australia

276

128

107

  41

9

Netherlands

233

109

106

  18

10

Brazil

213

180

  32

*

11

Bermuda

148

121

  27

*

12

Ireland

120

  79

  26

  15

13

Spain

113

  87

  26

*

14

Korea, South

105

  88

  16

    1

15

China, Mainland

102

102

     1

*

16

Luxembourg

  94

  32

  57

    6

17

Hong Kong

  93

  91

     1

*

18

Mexico

  88

  65

   23

*

19

Italy

  79

  59

   16

    4

20

Taiwan

  77

  77

*

    0

21

Sweden

  76

  44

   26

    6

22

India

  65

  62

     3

*

23

Israel

  59

  44

   14

*

24

Netherlands Antilles

  57

  56

     1

*

25

South Africa

  54

  49

     4

0

 

Rest of world

674

 404

 222

  46

 

Total

      5,977

        3,995

       1,594

387

* Greater than zero, but less than $500 million


[1]   The stock of foreign securities for December 31, 2009 reported in this survey may not, for a number of reasons, correspond to the stock of foreign securities on December 31, 2008, plus cumulative flows reported in the Treasury International Capital reporting system.  An analysis of the relationship between the stock and flow data is available

 in Table 4 and the associated text of the Report on U.S. Portfolio Holdings of Foreign Securities at end-year 2009.

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