Press Releases

Report on Foreign Holdings of U.S. Securities at End-June 2007

(Archived Content)

hp-947

 

The final results from the survey of foreign portfolio holdings of U.S. securities at end-June 2007 are released today and posted on the U.S. Treasury web site at ( http://www.treas.gov/tic/fpis.html).

This annual survey was undertaken jointly by the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The next survey will be for end-June 2008, and preliminary data are expected to be released by February 27, 2009.

Complementary surveys measuring U.S. holdings of foreign securities are also carried out annually. Data from the most recent survey, reporting on securities held on year-end 2007, are currently being processed. Preliminary results are expected to be reported by August 29, 2008.

Overall Preliminary Results

The survey measured foreign holdings of U.S. securities as of June 30, 2007, to be $9,772 billion, with $3,130 billion held in U.S. equities, $6,007 billion in U.S. long-term debt securities1 (of which $1,472 billion are holdings of asset-backed securities (ABS) 2 and $4,535 billion are holdings of non-ABS securities), and $635 billion held in U.S. short-term debt securities. The previous survey, conducted as of June 30, 2006, measured foreign holdings of $2,430 billion in U.S. equities, $4,733 billion in U.S. long-term debt securities, and $615 billion in short-term U.S. debt securities (see Table 1).

  1. Long-term debt securities have an original term-to-maturity of over one year.
  2. Asset-backed securities are backed by pools of assets, such as pools of residential home mortgages or credit card receivables, which give the security owners claims against the cash flows generated by the underlying assets. Unlike most other debt securities, these securities generally repay both principal and interest on a regular basis, reducing the principal outstanding with each payment cycle.

Table 1. Foreign holdings of U.S. securities, by type of security, as of recent survey dates

(Billions of dollars)

 

Type of Security

June 30, 2006

June 30, 2007

 

 

 

Long-term Securities

7,162

9,136

Equity

2,430

3,130

Long-term debt

4,733

6,007

Asset-backed

980

1,472

Other

3,753

4,535

Short-term debt securities

615

635

 

 

 

Total

7,778

9,772

Of which: Official

2,301

2,823

Table 2. Foreign holdings of U.S. securities, by country and type of security, for the major investing countries into the U.S., as of June 30, 2007
(Billions of dollars)

 

Country or category

Total

Equities

Long-term debt

Short-term

 

 

 

 

ABS

Other

debt

 

1

Japan

1,197

220

133

768

76

 

2

China (Mainland)1

922

29

217

653

23

 

3

United Kingdom

921

421

160

316

24

 

4

Cayman Islands

740

279

236

186

38

 

5

Luxembourg

703

235

104

320

44

 

6

Canada

475

347

23

83

22

 

7

Belgium

396

25

56

313

3

 

8

Ireland

342

81

75

101

85

 

9

Switzerland

329

174

41

99

15

 

10

Netherlands

321

185

64

59

13

 

11

Middle East Oil Exporters2

308

139

18

107

44

 

12

Germany

266

100

51

105

11

 

13

Bermuda

238

90

53

80

15

 

14

France

221

132

36

48

6

 

15

Singapore

175

108

13

52

3

 

16

Australia

165

87

8

62

9

 

17

Russia

148

0

0

109

39

 

18

Korea, South

138

5

13

105

15

 

19

Hong Kong

138

31

24

75

9

 

20

Taiwan

121

11

27

80

3

 

21

Norway

109

56

26

22

5

 

22

British Virgin Islands

108

67

2

32

7

 

23

Mexico

107

19

2

74

13

 

24

Brazil

106

1

0

103

2

 

25

Sweden

99

60

4

32

4

 

 

Country Unknown

214

0

1

211

2

 

 

Rest of the World

762

228

87

342

106

 

 

Total

9,772

3,130

1,472

4,535

635

 

 

of which: Official

2,823

266

280

2,021

256

 

1. Excludes Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, which are reported separately.

2. Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates.