Report On U.S. Portfolio Holdings of Foreign Securities at End-Year 2009

October 29, 2010

(Archived Content)

– 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 (https://auth.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Pages/fpis).

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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Report On U.S. Portfolio Holdings of Foreign Securities at End-Year 2009