Director’s Message

In this issue, we are pleased to discuss our annual update of the U.S. international transactions accounts (ITAs). Quarterly and annual statistics were updated to incorporate newly available and revised source data. Separate articles look at ITA statistics and at international investment position (IIP) statistics for the first quarter of 2019. The IIP article also discusses this year’s annual update of the IIP accounts. Another article looks at how the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) incorporates data from the Treasury Department into BEA’s estimates.

Elsewhere, we discuss the recently updated integrated industry-level production account, an ongoing collaboration between BEA and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The update includes new statistics for 2017, with information added on the sources of U.S. economic growth, and updated statistics for 1998–2016.

This month’s “GDP and the Economy” article takes a look at the third estimate of gross domestic product for the first quarter of 2019.