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WASHINGTON – Preliminary data from an annual survey of U.S. portfolio holdings of foreign securities at year-end 2008 were released today and posted on the Treasury web site at http://www.treas.gov/tic/fpis.html. Final survey results, which will include additional detail as well as revisions to the data, will be reported on October 30, 2009.

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, 2009, are currently being processed. Preliminary results are expected to be reported on February 26, 2010.

Overall Preliminary Results

The survey measured U.S. holdings at year-end 2008 of approximately $4.3 trillion, with $2.7 trillion held in foreign equities, $1.3 trillion in foreign long-term debt securities (original term-to-maturity in excess of one year), and $0.3 trillion held in foreign short-term debt securities. The previous such survey, conducted as of year-end 2007, measured U.S. holdings of $7.2 trillion, with $5.2 trillion held in foreign equities, $1.6 trillion in foreign long-term debt securities and $0.4 trillion held in foreign short-term debt securities.

Table 1.   U.S. holdings of foreign securities, by type of security, as of survey dates [1]
(Billions of dollars)

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, 2008
(Billions of dollars, except as noted)

* Greater than zero, but less than $500 million