As is customary each July, the estimates of the U.S. international investment position incorporate new source data and methodological improvements that relate to the changes incorporated in the annual revision of the U.S. international transactions accounts. This year, the following major changes are introduced.
The estimates of U.S. portfolio holdings of foreign securities for 1994–98 are revised, reflecting the incorporation of newly available preliminary results of the U.S. Treasury Department's and the Federal Reserve System's Benchmark Survey of U.S. Portfolio Investment Abroad. This survey covered U.S. ownership of outstanding foreign long-term securities as of December 31, 1997. This survey was a followup to a similar survey of U.S. portfolio investment abroad as of March 1994. The 1997 survey was conducted by the United States as part of an initiative coordinated by the International Monetary Fund in which 29 participating countries surveyed their residents' portfolio investment abroad. (The new position data also enable BEA to develop improved estimates of the associated flows of interest and dividend income receipts, which were incorporated into BEA's international transactions accounts released in June 1999).
Estimates of the positions of U.S. direct investment abroad and of foreign direct investment in the United States on the current-cost basis have been revised back to 1976 to incorporate improved estimates of the current-cost adjustment. These improvements include the introduction of geometric depreciation, an improved treatment of transfers of equipment and structures by direct investment affiliates, newly available equipment and structures price indexes, and newly available data for capital investment, depreciation, depletion, and expensed exploration and development costs by direct investment affiliates. (These improvements also affect income and financial flows in BEA's revised international transactions accounts released in June 1999.)