U.S. Department of the Treasury

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today released Treasury International Capital (TIC) data for March 2016.  The next release, which will report on data for April 2016, is scheduled for June 15, 2016.

 

The sum total in March of all net foreign acquisitions of long-term securities, short-term U.S. securities, and banking flows was a monthly net TIC outflow of $98.3 billion.  Of this, net foreign private outflows were $51.5 billion, and net foreign official outflows were $46.9 billion.

 

Foreign residents increased their holdings of long-term U.S. securities in March; net purchases were $64.7 billion.  Net purchases by private foreign investors were $83.0 billion, while net sales by foreign official institutions were $18.3 billion.

 

U.S. residents decreased their holdings of long-term foreign securities, with net sales of $13.4 billion.

 

Taking into account transactions in both foreign and U.S. securities, net foreign purchases of long-term securities were $78.1 billion.  After including adjustments, such as estimates of unrecorded principal payments to foreigners on U.S. asset-backed securities, overall net foreign purchases of long-term securities are estimated to have been $64.6 billion in March.

 

Foreign residents increased their holdings of U.S. Treasury bills by $9.0 billion.  Foreign resident holdings of all dollar-denominated short-term U.S. securities and other custody liabilities increased by $1.8 billion.

 

 

Complete data are available on the Treasury website at:

 

Today, TIC begins replacing several aggregates with country data.  This release makes these changes to monthly data on foreign holdings of Treasury securities.  Asian Oil Exporters (also called Middle East Oil Exporters) will become individual country data on Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.  African Oil Exporters will become country data on Algeria, Gabon, Libya, and Nigeria.

 

In the table of Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities, Oil Exporters will become country data on the Asian and African oil exporters, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Indonesia.  Caribbean Banking Centers will become country data on the Bahamas, Bermuda, Bonaire-Saint Eustatius-Saba, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Curaçao, Panama, and Sint Maarten. The United Kingdom will no longer include Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man, which will all be shown separately.  Countries that do not appear in the Major Foreign Holders table may be found in the file on U.S. Treasury Securities Held by Foreign Residents.

 

The annual Report on Foreign Holdings of U.S. Securities at end-June 2015, to be released on May 31, will extend these changes to annual data on holdings of other types of securities.

 

 

The monthly data on holdings of long-term securities, as well as the monthly table on Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities, reflect foreign holdings of U.S. securities collected primarily on the basis of custodial data.  These data help provide a window into foreign ownership of U.S. securities, but they cannot attribute holdings of U.S. securities with complete accuracy.  For example, if a U.S. Treasury security purchased by a foreign resident is held in a custodial account in a third country, the true ownership of the security will not be reflected in the data.  The custodial data will also not properly attribute U.S. Treasury securities managed by foreign private portfolio managers who invest on behalf of residents of other countries.  In addition, foreign countries may hold dollars and other U.S. assets that are not captured in the TIC data.  For these reasons, it is difficult to draw precise conclusions from TIC data about changes in the foreign holdings of U.S. financial assets by individual countries.