Washington – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today released Treasury International Capital (TIC) data for December 2019. The next release, which will report on data for January 2020, is scheduled for March 16, 2020.

The sum total in December of all net foreign acquisitions of long-term securities, short-term U.S. securities, and banking flows was a net TIC inflow of $78.2 billion. Of this, net foreign private inflows were $134.2 billion, and net foreign official outflows were $56.0 billion.

Foreign residents increased their holdings of long-term U.S. securities in December; net purchases were $60.7 billion. Net purchases by private foreign investors were $66.8 billion, while net sales by foreign official institutions were $6.1 billion.

U.S. residents decreased their holdings of long-term foreign securities, with net sales of $24.9 billion.

Taking into account transactions in both foreign and U.S. securities, net foreign purchases of long-term securities were $85.6 billion. After including adjustments, such as estimates of unrecorded principal payments to foreigners on U.S. asset-backed securities, overall net foreign sales of long-term securities are estimated to have been $59.9 billion in December.

Foreign residents decreased their holdings of U.S. Treasury bills by $7.8 billion. Foreign resident holdings of all dollar-denominated short-term U.S. securities and other custody liabilities increased by $11.2 billion.

Banks’ own net dollar-denominated liabilities to foreign residents increased by $7.2 billion.

Complete data are available on the Treasury website at:

www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Pages/index.aspx

About TIC Data

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.

Press notice TIC for February 2020