A Look at the U.S. International Investment Position
First Quarter 2025 and Annual Update
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) recently released statistics on the U.S. international investment position (IIP) for the first quarter of 2025 and revised statistics for 2022–2024. IIP is a statistical balance sheet that presents the dollar value of U.S. external financial assets and liabilities. The U.S. net IIP is the difference between U.S. residents' foreign financial assets and liabilities. A negative net investment position represents a U.S. net liability to the rest of the world.
The following charts present highlights of the U.S. IIP statistics for the first quarter of 2025 and revised statistics for 2022–2024. More detail can be found on the U.S. international investment position product page on BEA's website.
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- The net international investment position increased from −$26.54 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024 to −$24.61 trillion at the end of the first quarter of 2025.
- The $1.92 trillion increase in the net IIP reflected an increase in assets and a decrease in liabilities.
- U.S. assets increased by $1.13 trillion to a total of $36.85 trillion at the end of the first quarter, driven mainly by financial transactions that largely reflected increased U.S. short-term lending abroad in the form of resale agreements and by appreciation of foreign currencies against the U.S. dollar that raised the market value of assets in dollar terms.
- U.S. liabilities decreased by $792.0 billion to a total of $61.47 trillion at the end of the first quarter, driven by U.S. stock price decreases that lowered the market value of direct investment and portfolio investment liabilities. These price decreases were partly offset by financial transactions that mostly reflected foreign purchases of U.S. debt securities and “other investment” inflows of deposits and of loans in the form of repurchase agreements.
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- Portfolio investment assets increased by $541.9 billion to $16.31 trillion, “other investment assets” increased by $367.7 billion to $5.96 trillion, and direct investment assets increased by $346.0 billion to $11.47 trillion.
- Financial derivatives, in contrast, decreased $261.8 billion to $2.05 trillion.
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- Financial transactions raised assets by $548.0 billion, largely reflecting increased U.S. short-term lending abroad in the form of resale agreements.
- Exchange-rate changes raised the value of assets by $528.4 trillion, reflecting foreign currency appreciation against the U.S. dollar. Portfolio investment and direct investment assets increased by $266.8 billion and $216.8 billion, respectively, from exchange-rate changes.
- Price changes raised the value of U.S. assets by $296.7 billion, reflecting price increases in the value of monetary gold that raised reserve assets by $132.3 billion and stock price increases, which raised the value of portfolio investment assets by $98.0 billion and direct investment assets by $69.2 billion.
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- Direct investment liabilities decreased by $880.3 billion to $16.93 trillion, financial derivatives decreased by $224.4 billion to $2.06 trillion, and portfolio investment liabilities decreased by $78.2 billion to $33.07 trillion.
- In contrast, “other investment liabilities” increased $390.9 billion to $9.41 trillion.
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- Price changes lowered the value of U.S. liabilities by $1.43 trillion, reflecting U.S. stock price decreases that lowered the value of direct investment liabilities by $836.4 billion and portfolio investment liabilities by $734.6 billion.
- Financial transactions raised U.S. liabilities by $844.8 billion, mostly reflecting foreign purchases of U.S. debt securities and inflows of deposits and of loans in the form of repurchase agreements.
Highlights
- BEA incorporated newly available and revised source data for 2022–2024.
- In addition, BEA has incorporated new statistics for transactions and positions related to a repurchase agreement facility for foreign and international monetary authorities (“FIMA Repo Facility”).
- For more information about revisions to financial transactions that impacted the IIP, see the Survey of Current Business article “Annual Update of the U.S. International Transactions Accounts,” which will be available later in July 2025.
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- The incorporation of data and methodology described above caused both upward and downward revisions to the net IIP.
- The largest upward revision to the net IIP was a revision of $157.6 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2023.
- The largest downward revision was a revision of $728.2 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2024.
