Washington – The findings from the annual survey of U.S. portfolio holdings of foreign securities at year-end 2018 were released today and posted on the Treasury web site at https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Pages/shcreports.aspx

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 is also conducted annually. Data from the most recent such survey, which reports on securities held at end-June 2019, are currently being processed. Preliminary results are expected to be reported on February 28, 2020.

Overall Results

This survey measured the value of U.S. portfolio holdings of foreign securities at year-end 2018 as approximately $11.3 trillion, with $7.9 trillion held in foreign equity, $2.9 trillion held in foreign long-term debt securities (original term-to-maturity in excess of one year), and $0.5 trillion held in foreign short-term debt securities. The previous such survey, conducted as of year-end 2017, measured U.S. holdings of approximately $12.4 trillion, with $9.1 trillion held in foreign equity, $2.8 trillion held in foreign long-term debt securities, and $0.5 trillion held in foreign short-term debt securities. The decrease in 2018 was entirely in equity (see Table 1).

U.S. portfolio holdings of foreign securities by country at the end of 2018 were the largest for the Cayman Islands ($1.74 trillion), followed by the United Kingdom ($1.36 trillion), Japan ($1.01 trillion), and Canada ($981 billion) (see Table 2). These four countries attracted 45 percent of total U.S. portfolio investment, versus 43 percent the previous year.

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, 2017 Dec. 31, 2018 Long-term Securities 11,953 10,795 Equity 9,118 7,900 Long-term debt 2,835 2,895 Short-term debt securities 456 502 Total 12,409 11,297

U.S. Portfolio Investment by Country

Table 2. Market value of U.S. portfolio holdings of foreign securities, by country and type of security, for countries attracting the most U.S. investment, as of December 31, 2018 [1]

(Billions of dollars)

Country or category Total Equity Debt Total Long-term Short-term Cayman Islands 1,742 1,287 455 449 6 United Kingdom 1,360 927 433 376 57 Japan 1,010 760 250 149 101 Canada 981 468 514 388 126 France 563 383 180 149 31 Ireland 503 421 81 72 9 Switzerland 458 428 30 27 3 Netherlands 456 270 186 181 5 Germany 402 306 96 77 19 Australia 333 174 158 113 45 Bermuda 236 200 36 36 * Korea, South 213 191 22 21 1 India 176 164 12 12 * Hong Kong 171 160 11 7 4 Brazil 169 139 30 29 1 China, mainland [2] 159 152 8 5 3 Taiwan 158 158 - * * Mexico 146 61 85 83 2 Sweden 144 90 54 36 18 Luxembourg 139 72 67 63 4 Rest of world 1,778 1,089 689 622 67 Total 11,297 7,900 3,397 2,895 502

* Greater than zero but less than $500 million.

Items may not sum to totals due to rounding.

[1] The stock of foreign securities for December 31, 2018, reported in this survey may not, for a number of reasons, correspond to the stock of foreign securities on December 31, 2017, plus cumulative flows reported in Treasury’s transactions 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 2018.”

[2] China, Hong Kong, and Macau are all reported separately.