Publication

This paper discusses the US international investment position. It shows that despite an accumulation of deficits, the US net international debtor position (IIP) has deteriorated only by $2.7 billion. It further states that a large amount of investment flows into the US, but after some time it disappears from the statistics. The discrepancy arises for a simple reason: the flow data are based on actual flows of payments recorded in the balance of payments. By contrast, the stock data (on the US international investment position) are based on US surveys, which tend to miss out on US assets held by foreigners. This implies that it is likely that the true US net debtor position is significantly larger than officially reported.